An Unexpected Turn
by Silvyia
Summary: 23 year old Alexandria Derrix is a normal girl- or as normal as you can be with rich parents and a famous older brother. She was living a nice life, everything she wanted whenever she wanted it, but as a young girl, she wanted more. She wanted adventure. She gets just that when she is trapped inside of her favorite show, Red Vs Blue. Rated M for language and possible lemony scenes.
1. Chapter 1

Have you ever had one of those days that starts out beautiful- the sun is shining, the birds are singing beautiful songs, and the delicious smell of homemade pancakes on the stove downstairs- only, you know something bad was going to happen? That feeling that makes you doubt everything today, and makes you in a grumpy mood despite everything amazing happening around you? Yeah, that's what it felt like. The day that it happened.

What is 'it', you ask? Good question. I wish I had someone to tell me the answer to that when it first happened. I was so confused. I was even kind of scared, thinking that I wasn't ever going to see my family again. Have my normal life back. And I was right.

After all, it's not everyday you wake up in your favorite show.

This is how it happened. I'm recalling the events to tell anyone who may have this happen to them as well, though it's not likely.

This is my story.

~~~o0o~~~

A young girl sits next to an even younger girl, both smiling and laughing as they mash the buttons on their controllers, bending this way and that thinking it would help win the game. Who were these girls? They were me and my younger niece.

I was around the age of 15 when she was born.

Me being 23 and her being 8 that day, we were playing one of her favorite games. Halo. I was never really a fan of these kinds of games, or rather not a fan of playing them. It was fun to watch others' playing them. I was just never too good at them.

My name is Alexandria Derrix, but please, call me Alex. I think my name is a little too flashy, and good reason to be. It's kind of hard to not get a flashy name when your mother and father are rich and famous people. My father is John Derrix, CEO of some big company somewhere. I never payed attention to his job. My mother doubled as a repair-woman(a damn good one) and a nurse of an ICU hospital far, far away from our home. She was gone most of the time, and when she did come home, she just went to bed. So, yeah, didn't speak with her that often. We may not see eye to eye all the time, but she works two huge jobs that are always demanding her attention, so I understand. My niece makes it up by visiting often. She is the daughter of my older brother, Joshua. He was 26 when he had her. He's 34 today. Her name is Lexy. Josh named her after me, and I make sure to remind her of that often by calling her 'little me'.

The house, or mansion rather suits it, we live in is old but looks brand new. It's been here for decades, a pass on from generation to generation of the Derrix's. Your typical 'rich-family' mansion with big fancy plants and a large, show off-y, spiral staircase in the center of the room. There are over 13 rooms in this house, and though I've lived here my whole life, I haven't seen all of them. Yet.

I make it my business to know about everything going on around me. To know where I am. I hate not knowing something, it irks me. I also love adventuring, so that only fuels my need to see every room in the house.

I was a bright young girl, getting straight A's in advanced classes, but my memory dampens my knowledge. I was smart, very smart, but my memory works... differently, to say the least. I can listen to everything around me and forget it all in five minutes. I can't remember it for the life of me, but it all comes back when I actually need it. I gave up questioning it years ago. As long as I remembered what I needed to and when I needed to, I was fine with it.

I also don't pay attention in class. I can't. When i'm hearing something I don't care about, I automatically zone out and think about other things. Sometimes without even knowing that I was. What kind of things do I think of? Shows and movies that I watched, or want to watch. I'm just going to say this now; music and movies make up half of my life. I listen to music when I do anything. I like to learn to play as many instruments as I can, just for the hell of it. When I'm not listening to or making music, I'm watching movies. I prefer movies over shows, but sometimes I will watch a show that I find interesting. Shows like RedVsBlue. Yeah... I watch that show. Not just watch it- I love it.

I started watching it a week ago, and I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt before I was finished with episode one. Just remembering the show makes me smile. I wasn't done with it, though. Not at all. I wasn't done with season one. With only a few episodes in each season, you'd think I'd be done already, but no. I've been busy these past few weeks. Finals are coming up, and I was studying like hell. It's not that I didn't think I couldn't pass them, my mother pushed me to work harder. I knew I could pass them easily without having to lift a finger, but she is the strict mother type. She won't accept anything less than an A+.

Enough about me, though, let's get back to the current situation.

Lexy through the controller in the air and stood up quickly, shouting "BOOYAH!"

Looks like I zoned out for too long. She beat me and won the game. Oops.

I smile and sit back. "In your face, sucker!" She points and me and laughs. She isn't rude or a sore winner, it's just the sister like bond between us. The kind of bond where one of us insults the other, and we laugh at it instead of getting mad. A close bond.

"Yeah, yeah," I raise my hands in defeat and drop my controller, the dull thud ringing out in the almost empty house. "You may have won the battler, but you haven't won the war."

Lexy crosses her arms and turns away. "Psh, you certainly aren't winning anything." I laugh at this. "That's just cold!" We both laugh and before we can start another round of the game, Lexy's babysitter comes out of the kitchen and into the living room, wiping her hands on a white apron she was wearing. "Girls, breakfast is on the counter!" Lexy groans. "But I wanna play again!" The babysitter looked torn for a minute. She really didn't like upsetting my dad my making his granddaughter cry. Lexy always used this to her advantage and threatened to cry whenever she didn't get exactly what she wanted.

I wasn't that mean, though.

I picked up my controller and took Lexy's from her. "Hey, how about we watch some RedVsBlue while we eat breakfast?" Lexy gasps. She smiles wide and jumps up and down. "YES YES YES YES YES!" She jumps up and runs out of the room, going to get the plates of food to bring in here. The babysitter sighs and smiles at me before walking out, most likely going to make sure Lexy didn't break anything.

I know, I know, the show isn't fit for an 8 year old girl. It has cussing and the such in it, and mom would kill me if she found out I let Lexy watch something like that. Mom thinks Lexy is a gentle and delicate little flower, so I make Lexy promise not to tell anyone that I let her watch it. It seemed to work fine so far.

I put the controllers in their cub on the shelf, and I took the remote control and sat down on the couch. After turning on the T.V, the bright symbol lighting up the dark room before the sun could come up fully, I selected Netflix. Being rich has its perks.

I smile at the episode titles, selecting episode 1 of season 1. Like I said, we've been too busy to watch the show. Lexy had only seen part of episode one before she had to go to bed last night, and she was stuck to the show now. I was on episode 4, but I went back for Lexy. I also loved the first episodes, so it's a win-win situation.

The loading screen stopped and it was black. The whole screen. Just black. I thought maybe it froze on the loading screen, but boy was I wrong. I could pause and un-pause it, and the bar would show up showing me how far along the episode was, but there were no voices and no characters. "What the heck," I mumbled under my breath. I stood. What the hell was wrong with it? Was it glitching out? I walked closer to the T.V, not once thinking that it was dangerous. When I was only 3 feet away from it, I took one last step before laying my hand on the top of it. I don't know why, I just did out of reflex I guess. Whatever I had done, though, caused an electric spark to shock me, and I stepped away quickly, holding my hand to my chest.

I tripped over an x-box controller on the floor behind me and landed on my back.

Hadn't I just put that controller away? And what was taking Lexy so long?

I sat up on my elbows and looked at my hand. I was bleeding. Just a little, though. Enough to sting but not enough to need attention. But that's not why I was worried. Surely Lexy and the 'sitter had heard the crash, why hadn't they come? I couldn't hear then anymore either. I sat up further, still holding my hand to my chest.

But what I felt confused me. The solid ground that was my living room floor was gone. In its' place was soft green grass, patches of dry yellowish grass strewn about. I looked around me and saw that I was no longer inside. I was no longer in the same city. I didn't know where I was.

It was only when I looked in front of me that I noticed I wasn't alone. Because there, standing in front of me with his gun lowered and pointing at my legs, was Caboose.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hi!"

Caboose didn't seem to care that a women had just mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and landed in the grass in front of him, because it certainly didn't stop him from waving his hand at me excitedly and greet me in a cheery tone.

Yup, definitely Caboose.

"Uh-" I was confused. I couldn't manage to say anything, so I instead went with scooting back and warily looking at his gun, which was still pointed at my legs. Obviously, he noticed I was looking at the gun and must've remembered that I wasn't a friend of his. He raised the gun with both hands to point it at my head and I screwed my eyes shut, expecting to be shot. But it never came.

"Uh, lady?" I could hear Caboose's confused voice. I opened my eyes slowly to see him just standing there, the gun still pointed at my head, but his posture was relaxed.

"You okay?" What the fuck. He was pointing a gun at my head and asking if I was okay? Before I could answer, he perked up and continued talking. "Ohhh, were you napping?" Okay, now I was seriously confused. Who would nap at a time like this? But I let it slide- he probably wasn't aware of what I just went through. And yet, he continued talking.

"I like to nap, too. After pants time, of course, it'd be stupid if it came before. Church gets mad at me sometimes when I nap, he says that 'soldiers don't nap'. I think every good soldier needs a nap sometimes! Like- if we're tired, we don't do the war good-" I stopped listening to him then. He was just ranting now.

Church.. the name sounded familiar.

…

Why can't I remember it? I spent hours watching the show, and now I can't remember anything? I could remember a few things about the show now. Only snippets, like pictures. Well- I guess if I was being sent to their world, they wouldn't want me knowing their future...

And then my senses finally came back to me.

Oh shit.

I was in their world.

I finally gathered myself and stood up on shaky feet. I was dizzy from the zap and the fall, so I wobbled at first when I stood.

Caboose, seeing me stand up, got back to attention and lifted his gun once more. "Hey, wait, Lady. Are you blue?" Blue? Like- oh yeah. Blue vs Red.

"Blue, blue team?" I asked. My voice came out shakier than I would've liked. I cursed at my weakness, but Caboose didn't seem to care. He is Caboose after all.

"Yeah! Are you on the blue team?" I swallowed. He was still pointing his gun at my head, and it was making me nervous. I fidgeted and shifted my weight onto my other foot. What should I say? I wasn't on blue, that's for sure, but I wasn't red either. If I said no, he would shoot me, thinking I was red... but if I said yes, then the red's would think I was there enemy-

Wait. I'm overthinking this.

This is Caboose.

"Nope. I'm not blue." Caboose wouldn't shoot me. That thought made me a lot more comfortable.

"Oh." He lowered his weapon slightly, but it was still positioned on my head. "So then- you are red. Red is bad, which means you are bad?" Caboose spoke slowly, actually seeming smart for a minute, and he took a step back, wary in case I had a weapon on me. Which, to my disappointment, I did not.

"No. I'm not red, either," I responded slowly. Seeing him actually be smart and cautious had made me rethink. Maybe he really would shoot me. That made me nervous again. "I'm not the bad guy."

Caboose lowered his weapon and relaxed. "Oh, good! 'Cause I didn't wanna shoot you, Lady. You seem nice. Like- 'maybe we could be friends' kind of nice." Caboose was mostly talking to himself, but the thought of making a friend obviously excited him. "Can we be friends?" he was practically jumping with excitement.

"Uh- yeah, yeah we can," I smiled. Caboose may not be the smartest, but he was actually kind of lovable when you meet him. Like that one hyperactive friend that annoys you, but you just can't bring yourself to get rid of them. Caboose put his pistol in his holster, finally, and turned around. "Oh good! I don't have many friends," Caboose started walking away. Confused, I assumed he wanted me to follow him, so I did. Warily, though, I didn't want any more blues holding a gun to my head. Or reds. I didn't want anyone holding a gun to my head.

"I don't have any friends actually. That's what Church tells me." Caboose sounded kind of sad, but the hint of excitement was still there. I actually started feeling bad for him. Then he started ranting again.

"I think maybe I could have friends, but people don't really like me too much. I wonder why? Like, am I a bad shot or something or is my blue wrong?" I almost laughed at what he thought was wrong with him. Almost.

"Hey, u-uh, Caboose?" Caboose may not be too smart, but he was still the one with the weapon. Caboose stopped and turned around, and I almost ran into him from the sudden halt. "Yeah?"

"I, uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but..." I looked around us at the grassy hills and the occasional tree or rock. This place was a lot more empty when you're here in person. Really big, and really empty. "Where are you taking me?" I asked quietly. I looked up at his visor, but I couldn't tell if he was looking at me or not. We stood in silence for a while, and I wondered if I said something wrong. "Uh- Caboose?" It was silent for a minute before he tilted his helmet to look down at me. He was taller than I was. It would've been intimidating if this wasn't Caboose we were talking about.

"Yeah?"

I inwardly groaned. Of course he hadn't been paying attention. Why would he. "Nothing. Never mind. Continue, please," I smiled politely. He shrugged. "If you say so, Lady!" He turned around, and I spoke up.

"Alex."

He paused and turned slightly to look over his shoulder pads. "What?" "My name. It's Alex. Not 'lady'." Caboose stood for a moment, and I once again found us both just standing in the quiet, not saying anything or moving. He then turned around and started walking away. Weird. I would've though he would say something like 'my name is Caboose(even though I already knew his name)' or even just say something weird. I did not expect him to quietly walk away like he was deep in thought. Serious Caboose was scary.

~~~o0o~~~

I don't know how long we were walking, but it felt like hours. Though by the look of the sun's new position, it was probably only half an hour. I wasn't out of shape, I just wasn't used to how hot it was here. Was this still earth?

It made me upset, suddenly not knowing what was going on. Like I said before, I hate not knowing something.

Anyway, back to me and Caboose. We hadn't talked since I told him my name, and I was seriously considering asking what was wrong. I really didn't like this side of him. The quiet, non-idiotic side of him. It was slightly dark out, the moon was just barely visible and a few of the brighter stars could be seen if you focused enough. The grass was a darker shade now, and it was cooler than earlier. I reflectively walked closer to Caboose. He may not be his usual self right now, but I really didn't like feeling alone. I was close enough to feel the heat off his back, but I wasn't touching him. I looked down at the ground as we walked. And he did it again. He abruptly stopped. This time, I did run into him.

I took a step back, the impact forcing me to. His armor made him a lot heavier, so he didn't even budge. He turned around, and I sighed gladly. He hadn't said anything yet, but the mood was feeling a lot lighter, so I could tell he was back to his usual self again. I was good at reading people, but the visor and body armor made it harder.

"Here we are!" I was right, Caboose was back to himself. He was giddy again as he moved to the side and held up an arm, mentioning to the building in front of us. Concrete walls with bright blue symbols on either side, so bright they were glowing in the quickly darkening sky. Note to self: it gets darker here a lot quicker than it does back home.

And that was all it took.

My knees buckled and I feel down onto the grass. Home. Lexy. Joshua. Mom and Dad... What were they thinking? What was happening at home? How long had I been gone in their time? Were they calling the police, or just thinking this was another one of my adventures? I started crying without realizing it, and Caboose stood there very confused for a moment, before he saw the tears. He knelt down and put his hand awkwardly on my back, trying to comfort me. I tried holding in my tears. If there was anyone to look weak in front of, I did not want it to be a trained soldier. But I couldn't help it. I gave up and started sobbing uncontrollably. I sat on my knees and hugged myself, reflexively holding the necklace my mother gave me when I turned six as I cried. Caboose seemed to be panicking. "Lady? A-Alex?" When I didn't respond(not with words, at least), he stood still for a minute. He finally decided on something, and scooted so that he was in front of me. Before I even had time to wonder what he was doing, he picked me up and put me in his lap, hugging me close. This effectively stopped the sobbing, and I instead stared wide-eyed at his chest armor, hiccuping and still holding onto my necklace.

When I realized he was comforting me, I relaxed. I definitely needed someone right now, soldier or not, so I closed my eyes and calmed my breathing, still hiccuping from time to time. I rested my hand on his armor and sighed. The hiccuping stopped and we both sat there in silence. A comfortable silence, though. One that I didn't mind being in. Everything was calm and quiet, until..

"What the fuck are you doing, Caboose?"

Thank you, Guest, for the review! I will take your advice, and I agree with you. Thanks for the help again ;w; -Sil


	3. Chapter 3

I sat on the concrete ground and looked down at my feet. My eyes were still red from crying, and I sniffed every now and then, though my face was red because of embarrassment. Someone, I still don't know who, had come out of the base and found me and Caboose 'cuddling' as they had so graciously called it. In their words, exactly, it was "fucking pansy-ass cuddling", but I'll just stick with cuddling. They had taken Caboose inside and was talking to them now. Whether it was about what they just saw or about something else entirely, I don't know. So here I was, just sitting on the bottom of the concrete ramp that led to the top of the base, my feet crossed under me as I fiddled with my nails. A nervous habit I had.

These guys really needed to fix their whispering. It may be quiet, but I could hear everything they were saying.

"She's a nice lady, I promise." Oh, so it was about me.

"I don't care! Where did she come from? She isn't a blue!" Rude.

"Oh, don't worry. She promised she wasn't a red." I smiled at Caboose's naiive attitude.

"Anyone could say that, idiot, she could be a spy. A BLUE spy!" Mega-rude. Obviously this guy didn't trust me.

"But Alex was nice to me..." Caboose sounded so sad now, it almost broke my heart.

"Alex? Who the fuck is Alex?" Even if this guy was as dumb as Caboose(no offense, buddy,) he should know that he was referring to me.

"Alex is the lady. She doesn't like to be called the lady, though, so her name is Alex instead of the lady." Caboose sounded like a five year old. His odd way of speaking mixed with his voice sounded like a child. I heard the other guy sigh from Caboose's stupidity and I zoned out for the rest of the chat. I scoot over a little to try to see them so I could decipher who was talking to Caboose, since the voice wasn't helping, and I felt something press onto my thigh. I stopped moving for a moment, until I remembered. My phone! My eyes widen and I scrambled to take the phone out of my front pocket.

The screen had a small crack in the upper right hand corner, no doubt from the fall, and my hopes dwindled. I turned it over, looking for the on button frantically. When I did, I pressed it and said a small 'please god let it work' before turning it over again to look at the front. My eyes lit up once I saw that the screen was on, and everything was displayed. Including my screen saver, a picture of me and Lexy at the zoo together, an angry flamingo behind us about to peck at our hair. I smile, feeling the tears come back. I held them down, though, and looked at the statistics. 20 degrees Celsius. Let's see, that's …. 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Makes sense, it felt about right. I looked at the time. Judging by the temperature and position of the moon, it must be around midnight. It didn't make sense, though, considering it was about noon when I arrived here, and it had only been like 2 hours. The clock didn't help my case. It was spazzing out, changing numbers every second. It gave me a headache just looking at it, so I quickly entered my password into the box and hit 'enter'. The screen flashed black before the red and blue striped background came into view. I scoffed at the irony and quickly went to the call option.

My fingers hovered over the 'enter number' text and I blankly looked at the space right above the phone, thinking.

The show wasn't the only thing I forgot.

I couldn't remember any of the numbers I called on a regular basis. I stood up slowly, and I was about to drop my hands in defeat before I remembered I had both my Mom and Dad on speed dial. I quickly went to the sections with my families' numbers.

This time I did drop my hands. They were gone. All of them. The area where the familiar numbers usually stayed were now long gone, all of them deleted, the 'enter number' box taunting me.

I slowly sat back down, falling the last few inches and landing roughly on the ground. My feet slid out from under me, and I hugged them close to my body instead and hid my head between my knees, wrapping my arms around them and interlocking my hands. I sat for a few moments. A few, quiet, moments. I remembered my songs I stored on my phone for when I was in long car rides or for studying, and I slowly lifted my head to rest it on my knees. I held the phone in one hand while the other lazily pressed a few buttons and clicked on my music app. My head lifted a little when I saw my music was still there. At least it isn't a total loss. I clicked the 'play' button and put in my ear phones. I almost laughed at what song came on.

"Roses are red, and Violets are blue...one day we'll cruise down Blood Gulch Avenue.." I loved the theme song. I loved the singing and the slow drawn out music, so I saved it in case I wanted to hear it another time. I loved it.

But I couldn't stand to hear it right now.

So I clicked on skip, and one of my favorite songs played in its' place.

"On your way out, turn the lights out, take your supermodels and your broken beer bottles." The beat of the drum and the voice actually relaxed me, though this song was probably meant to rile people up and get them excited.

"I don't care- party anywhere. I'm broke man, possibly beyond repair." The lyrics reminded me of the situation I was in for some reason, and I lowered my head back onto my knees, closing my eyes. I wasn't going to sleep, but I wanted to block out everything else. Just get lost in the music.

"This is the best, this is the best. My head is such a f-king mess-

This is the best, crack house arrest, My head's a mess. Well-"

Right as my favorite part of the song came on, someone(cough cough) came over and yanked the ear phones out of my ears, making me yelp in surprise(and out of anger). I was angry. Out of everything that has happened, I can't even have some fucking music!?

"What the FUCK was that for!? Do you even KNOW how delicate those are?! You could've BROKEN THEM!" I stood up quickly.

Being thrown in another universe? Fine. Not having any way to contact my family? I'll live. But no one, NO ONE, fucks with my shit.

They were confused for a second, with Caboose talking about me being a 'nice lady' he obviously didn't expect me to lash out like this. Yeah, uh, don't piss me off. Fair warning.

"Where the FUCK are they, JACKASS!?" I whipped around and glared as hard as I could at the visor similar to Caboose's. I would've felt bad if the armor wasn't a different color. It was almost like yelling at Caboose. He was so innocent, like a puppy. Wait- I'm off track.

The person took a wary step back and held out the earphones. I snatched them from him, being careful to not be too rough with them but still scaring the guy in the armor. I turned around and saw Caboose standing behind him, but I ignored him for now and put the ear phones back in the plug to my phone. I saw that the part that plays the sound was crushed a little, most likely from the weight of his heavy armor, and I was fuming. I turned around and looked at what I hoped was his eyes behind his visor. "You better hope they still work," I said, my voice low and threatening. Obviously it worked, because the man took another step back, almost hiding behind Caboose now.

…

"See? She isn't so bad."


	4. Chapter 4

((Alright so I got a really long review last night from someone and I felt the need to reply.

To WargishBoromirFan: I don't really know where or how you watch your episodes(if you do watch RedVsBlue), but I watch the episodes on Netflix. On Netflix, each episode is at least one hour long. Sometimes, they're even two hours long. So, I repeat, I don't know where you watch your episodes. Sorry if this upset you or if you were confused, but, yeah, they're an hour and a half long on Netflix. That is all. Hope I cleared any confusion!))

Fuck.

That was the only thing I could think of right now. Just- fuck.

Turns out the guy I had lashed out at was Church, the blue team leader, and now he didn't really like me too much. Though I guess he kinda didn't like me before we met either. He was very suspicious of me, and I didn't blame him. Some random girl appears out of nowhere and comes walking into their not so secret base of operations? Suspicious as hell. The only reason he didn't kick me out or shoot me was because I was a girl, and he thought he could use that to his will.

Whatever the fuck that meant.

But that was earlier. Earlier as in thirty minutes ago. It was now dark out, the moon and stars twinkling brightly in the almost pitch black night sky, illuminating the land around us so that we could see.

By us I mean the red team and I.

A lot of shit happened in the past thirty minutes. Shit I thought wouldn't have happened for at least a few more hours.

The reds had somehow caught on to the fact that there was another person at the blue base, probably one of the guys with a sniper rifle, and they got pissed. They thought I was a blue, and they thought that blue command had sent reinforcements for the blue team, and they bashed(literally) through the walls of the blue base and began shooting everything.

The blues got pissed that their wall was broken(at least Church did, I don't think Caboose even realized what was happening, and the third blue guy wasn't here) and began fighting back.

Though they were down a guy, the blues decided that they could still somehow win this fight.

And all of this happened without the reds knowing that I wasn't a blue.

I was caught in the middle of the fight. They had somehow managed to drag the fight outside of the base so that they would stop breaking their shit, and so now the reds were hiding behind rocks in front of their base, occasionally coming out to shoot at the blues. The blues were doing the same, in front of their own base. I was currently hiding behind a rock with blue crayon scribbled all over it. Who the hell had crayons in a time like this? I snuck a glance at Caboose, holding his gun backwards and asking Church why the kittens were covered in spikes, and I sighed while shaking my head. Never mind, I already know the answer to that.

The rock spelled out 'TUCKERS ROCK' and 'PRIVATE, KEEP AWAY'. Who the hell claims a rock to themselves and writes all over it in crayon? This Tucker did, apparently. Can't wait to meet him.

I had finally had enough of this and stood up from behind the rock, my body stiff as a few bullets whizzed by. They wouldn't shoot a girl... right?

…

I decided I would take the chance.

Nobody seemed to notice me yet, that or they didn't care. I ruled that thought out since I think they would all care if there was a girl in the middle of the field. I walked out from behind the rock, dodging a few bullets meant for the blues. At least, I thought they were meant for the blues.

The maroon colored one, Simmons, peeked out from behind a rock with a sniper rifle in his hands, and he quickly dodged as if he was just getting a peek. Though, he seemed to pause and go stiff before he was fully behind the rock again, and he lifted his helmet In my direction. For a moment, we both just stared at each other.

"Simmons, what in the almighty cow lickin' sport are you lookin' at-" I could hear Sarge's rough western accented voice yelling from behind a rock further away from him. He was cut off, though, when he sat up to look as well and spotted me.

"Aleeeeex-" Caboose called out quietly, as if he was scolding a child. "You were supposed to stay behind the rock!" I snorted at the tone he was using. He was treating me like a child?

Church finally looked over to see what Caboose was talking about and it was quite clear he was freaking out. "What the hell! Are you trying to get shot, woman?!" He yelled at me, standing up to come get me, but Simmons shot the area above him so he ducked back down.

I resisted the urge to point out that the only one being shot at was him.

"Stop fighting. You're both idiots. Case closed," I shouted. The shooting had stopped, Church pissed that I gave my self away, Caboose curious on what I was saying, and the red both curious and pissed that they didn't know the blues had a girl on their side (Which I wasn't, but they thought that I was), but I shouted just for emphasis that I was clearly upset about the sudden mini-war going on in front of me.

I heard Caboose pipe up from behind Church. "I'm not an idiot." I smiled. "Everybody is an idiot except for you, Caboose."

With that said, I turned on my heel and walked away in a random direction, hoping that I wouldn't wind up lost. I just wanted away from those dorks right now to think about what was going on.

They probably also need some time to think.

I continued walking for a while, maybe about five minutes, before I came across a lake. It was shimmering blue, and it looked clean, the moon reflecting off of its surface. I stood there and though for a moment.

Fuck it, what do I have to risk.

I walked up to the lake and sat on the edge, dunking my feet in the cool water. I sighed at the temperature. After such a hot day, the cool water was definitely welcomed. If it weren't for the fact that there were a bunch of men out there most likely searching for me right now, I would've stripped down and hopped in.

But yes, there were a bunch of men who were most likely searching for me out there right now. So no, I was not going to get in the water.

I heard quiet footsteps behind me and I was fully prepared to jump up and defend myself when Caboose's voice called out.

"Hi Alex," He greeted in his usual carefree voice, walking up to me.

"Hey, Caboose. Wanna sit with me?" I pat the grass next to me, looking up at Caboose and smiling. He was currently the only guy I trusted right now. "Can I?" Caboose sounded as though he had never sat with someone before, like it was an honor or something. This guy needed more attention. Everyone was way too mean to him. I laughed and nodded my head, and he giddily sat down next to me, placing his armor-covered feet in the water as well. I wanted to say something, tell him that it would probable rust his armor, but he seemed so happy so I decided not to.

"Micheal."

Everything was quiet, so I hadn't expected Caboose to speak up out of nowhere. Not without being talked to first, at least.

"What?" I turned my head to look at him, dumbfounded.

"Micheal," Caboose tilted his head to look at me, and he simply repeated what he had said. "Yeah, I know what you said, I mean.. why did you say it?"

"My name is Micheal J. Caboose." Caboose nodded as if he was clarifying something. "It's just- I call you by your first name but you always call me by my last name. I was gonna call you by your last name, but I don't know it, so you can call me by my first name instead!" Caboose began explaining slowly, picking up the speed and sounding more excited toward the end. I smiled, looking into his tinted visor.

"Okay, Micheal." Caboose(Micheal) seemed happier that I was calling him by his first name, and I laughed slightly.

…

"Can I... I still wanna know your name though..." Ca-Micheal admitted(fuck this is hard), looking down at his hands as if it was a bad thing to ask for.

"My full name is Alexandria Derrix. Alex is just a nickname," I smiled. Micheal was actually really nice to talk to. Great company. "Oooooh." He nodded his head. It was quiet again for a moment, and I closed my eyes, leaning on Micheal's shoulder. He didn't seem to care.

"..Hey... Alex?"

"Hm?"

…

"When did we get a lake?"


	5. Chapter 5

So, today was officially day two of being here in this box canyon with these people, and I didn't know how much more I could take. Yesterdays' events were enough for a lifetime, and yet it was only hours. I groan when I remembered some of the things that would be going on in the future. This is gonna be hard.

I sit up from the bed I was just sleeping in, the blanket falling off of me while I stretched. I really don't want to go over everything that happened last night, but for the sake of the readers I will do a quick recap. I sat at the lake with C-Micheal(I still was having trouble with the new name) for a few hours until I got sleepy. When he noticed, he took me back to base and offered to let me sleep in his room since they didn't have any spare rooms. But there was the third blue guy there when we got back. Micheal called him Tucker, so let's go with that name. They ended up getting into a fight of some sort when Tucker realized that blue team had a chick, but I didn't stick around to find out what they were fighting about. I was tired and the walk made my feet hurt, so I simply went to the room that said 'Caboose' on the front in blue crayon and fell asleep in his bed. I'm glad Micheal isn't like Tucker, or we would've had a problem. But now I could hear something going on in the room next to Micheal's. I think it was like a living room or something. Trying to make sense of these bases hurts, so I just went with the design.

I was curious, however, about what was going on in the room next door. So I reluctantly got up from the warm bed(which I now noticed only had me in it. Did Micheal sleep in the bed last night?) and walked across the cold floor to the doorway. The motion sensors activated when I got close enough, and the door opened for me. I made my way over to the room with the now louder voices, combing my finger through my hair. What? I still wanted to keep up my appearance.

When I rounded the corner, I saw all of the blues standing in the room, arguing about something. I sighed.

"Jesus fuck, are you guys still arguing about me being here?"

At the sound of my voice, the three blues looked over at me. Tucker straightened his back, Church took a step back(I really should apologize for snapping at him), and Micheal ran over to me. He picked me like I weighed nothing to him in a crushing bear hug. "Hello Alex! Did you sleep good? My bed is like super comfy, so I hope you were super comfy!"

"Aw, dude, the rookie is already in second base?!" I hear Tucker shout from behind him. "Lucky..." I hear him mumble before a 'thwach' sounded out, and I assumed Church had hit him. Tucker's "ow!" only proved my theory.

"Micheal, could you please put me down now?" I laughed and put a hand on his shoulder. He put me down on the ground and I rubbed my arm. He was pretty damn strong. "Yes, okay. You are down now." Micheal said matter-of-factly. Tucker's helmet moved to the side and I guessed he was rolling his eyes. He sure does have an attitude. "Also, oh oh, also!" Micheal jumped, remembering something. "The answer is no!" Everyone in the room was silent for a moment. "No... to what..?" I asked. "Your question!" I stood there for a second before figuring out what he meant. "Oh, you mean about the question I asked about you guys fighting?" Micheal nodded. "Well then, what are you guys fighting about?"

"About how you got here!" Micheal responded happily, giddy that he could answer my questions. I half expected him to ask for a golden star.

Church groaned. "We were talking about what we should do, since, you know, you just got here by yourself somehow, but somehow the conversation shifted to about how you got here. I was thinking maybe you crashed from a ship or something, but you don't seem hurt or anything..."

"I still think she's a bird..." Micheal mumbled under his breath and I decided not to ask.

Church and Tucker both turned to look at me. "So, uh, how did you get here, exactly?" Tucker asked, curious.

Should I tell them? I mean, it was like over 300 years into the future, I don't think they'd believe that I was from the twenty first century. They'd say I was crazy and probably give me over to the red team willingly. Well, Church would want to. Tucker wouldn't pass down the opportunity(not that there was one), and Micheal liked me too much. I decided to feign ignorance. Amnesia.

"Uh.. I-I don't know.. I just, woke up here..?" Well, technically, I wasn't lying.

But they didn't seem to buy it. We all stood in silence for a minute before Micheal spoke up. "Yeah sometimes that happens to me too."

~~~o0o~~~

It's been a few hours since that happened, and I was now standing on the top of the base with Church and Tucker, just watching the red team. Church didn't trust me, so he didn't want me out of his sight. But I also didn't know anything about fighting, so I stayed behind them.

"What are they doing?" Tucker asked him, leaning in so he could try to see with the scope on the sniper rifle Church was holding up, but Church just leaned away to keep his personal space.

"What?" He asked. He sounded annoyed and just about ready to shoot someone. Hopefully the reds.

"I said, what are they doing now?" Tucker repeated. Poor Tucker, he didn't realize that Church meant for him to shut up.

"God damn, I am getting so sick of answering that question!" Church lowered the sniper rifle. At least he wasn't pointing it at someone.

"Well you have the fucking rifle, I can't see shit!" Tucker lowered his pistol as well. I sighed. It seems they were going to start fighting. "Don't bitch at me, because i'm not going to just sit up here and play with my dick."

"Okay, look, they're just standing there... and talking. Okay?" Church tried to calm him down. "That's all they're doing. That's all they ever do, is just stand there. And talk." And now Church was raising his voice slightly. "That's what they were doing last week, and that's what they were doing when you asked me five minutes ago."

Tucker looked back over at the red base. "So five minutes from now," Church continued. "When you ask me what are they doing, my answered going to be they're still just talking, and they're still just standing there!" Church's shoulders were tense and Tucker was still looking over at the red base, defeated. Church finally went back to looking at red base too, and I sucked in air at the tense silence. Everything was quiet.

"So what are they talking about?"

~~~o0o~~~

"And so I said- 'how are you going to get a tank down to the planet?' and he goes, 'I'll just put it on the ship.' And I go, 'if you've got a ship that can carry a tank, why not just put guns on the ship and use it instead?'" Micheal was explaining a conversation which I doubted actually happened between him and the ship pilot before he got here. I wasn't really paying attention anymore, I was looking at the tank that a ship had just dropped off. I wish someone could have told me a ship was coming, I could've snuck onto it and left this god forsaken canyon. But it seems they've left already, so here I was with Tucker, Church, and Micheal, just looking at the tank sitting in front of us.

"Hey, kid," Tucker looked over at Micheal, holding his gun in his hands. "Yeah?" Micheal answered. "You're ruining the moment. Shut up."

I wanted to tell Tucker that he should shut up, but Micheal began talking. "Oh.. okay..." Micheal looked so dejected, and I made a mental note to punch Tucker later. If he took his armor off. I didn't want to punch armor. "Youuuu got it, man..." Micheal drawled out, looking down sadly. He looked like a kicked puppy and it made my heart hurt, dammit.

"You know what?" Church started saying something, but I ignored him and put my hand on Micheal's shoulder. "It's okay, Micheal." He lifted his helmet at me and nodded quietly, already seeming happier.

"You know what- forget what I said before," Tucker said. "I could totally pick up chicks with this thing." I groaned and ignored his conversation with Church. I really didn't want to hear them talking about girls. Especially not through Tucker's point of view.

"I've, uh, I've actually got a girl back home..." I faintly heard Church say, and I tuned back in. I wanted to hear about his life before. "Oh yeah?" Tucker asked. "Girlfriend or wife?" Me and Micheal just stood in the background while we listened in on their conversation.

"No, man, she's just my girlfriend. We were going to get married, but I got shipped out, and-" Church looked down, embarrassed to talk about it. "Ah, you know how it works," He said, lightly chuckling.

"Oh. Well, you gonna marry her when you get back?" Tucker asked, putting his hand on his hip. Is it just me or did he seem jealous?

"I'm not gonna get married," Micheal spoke up beside me, and I took my hand off his shoulder. What was he doing? He was just gonna get yelled at again for interfering. "My dad always said- why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" I almost facepalmed.

"Hey rookie... Did you just call my girlfriend a cow?" Church took a step forward, his voice low. "Naw, dude, I think he called her a slut!" Tucker added in, laughing. I hit his shoulder, making him flinch back. I pretended to not feel the pain on my hand. That armor was tough.

"I'll tell you what, noob, I can sit out here and listen to you insult my girlfriend all day long, but as it turns out, I got a lot more important job for you to do!" Church said after a minute, faking his happiness. "Great," Micheal let out, his voice bored. He obviously knew that he was in trouble. Which made me think- Micheal actually seems smart right now. Did he get dumber because of how much time he spent here? He didn't seem to be as dumb as he is in later episodes now... Oh shit, I zoned out. I tuned back in to the conversation.

"-So just, go in there, far away from us... and wait for him," Church was explaining to Micheal. What were they talking about? Curse my short attention span. Micheal thought for a moment before he turned and walked off. He stopped, though, halfway and yelled back at us- "Uh, how will I know when I see him?"

"Rookie, there are only three of us out here! He will be the one that doesn't look like us." Tucker explained, completely ignoring my presence, which is weird considering I'm a girl and he's.. well... Tucker. "Now get in there, and don't come out!" Church yelled at him, turning around. He saw me as he turned and added, "And take her with you!" I could hear Tucker grumble something about us being alone, but I followed after Micheal before I could hear him. When we were both in the base, I stood by the flag, feeling it, and Micheal went back out for a moment. It felt soft. The flag did, not Micheal. That would've been weird...

"ROOKIE! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP, YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY! GET IN THERE!" I heard Church yelling from outside, and Micheal ran back in quickly.

"You okay, Micheal?" I asked him when he stood next to me. It was quiet for a moment before he answered. "Yeahhh... I don't think he likes me very much." He looked down sadly. I hugged him(or as best as I could with his bulky armor) and smiled. "Aww, Micheal, I can't think of anyone who doesn't love you!" Probable because no one I knew, knew him... "He'll come around to it, don't worry..." Micheal hugged me back and I could feel the mood lighten. "Yeah!" I pulled back and we both just stood by the flag. "Hey, Micheal..?" I asked.

"Yeah?" He turned to look at me. "Can I call you Mike? I just think it'd be easier to say..." I explained when he gave me a questioning look(or something else I can't tell with his fucking helmet). "Sure!" He answered happily. I smiled.

Just then, a red guy came in. I stood still for a moment, trying to guess who this guy was, while Mike began talking.

"Wow, you got here fast!" Mike seemed happy that he was here, so I just went along with it and smiled. "Man, why is everyone so freakin' rude in this canyon?" His voice was familiar... hm... "I'm not, sir. What can I do for you?" Why was Mike so quick to try to please this guy? "Finally! Someone with a little respect around here!"

They talked for a while before I realized that this guy was Donut, the new addition to the red base. I also remembered he was here for the flag...

Should I stop Mike from giving it to him, or let the show run its' course?

((Longest chapter so far! ;u; Okay so, a lot of things are going to be different because of Alex's arrival, but i'm trying to keep it on track with what happens in the show. Anyway, you guys choose! Should Alex let Donut have the flag, or keep Donut from taking it?))


	6. Chapter 6

((the majority chose to not let Donut take the flag, so here goes!))

"Well I guess I will just take this..." Donut said, motioning toward the blue flag with his helmet.

"Oh, okay..." Mike said, thinking it over. "Makes sense..." He nodded once, taking a step back for Donut to take the flag and be on his merry way. Just as Donut reached out to take the flag handle, I stepped forward, in his way. Mike gasped and Donut looked at me confusedly.

"Alex what're you doing?" Mike whispered to me quickly. Donut could still hear him, though, and he looked between us for a moment. I stuttered. I didn't think it through, I just decided to not let him have the flag and did something about it. Oops.

"I-I, uhm... w-well, you see-" I stammered, trying to think of an excuse. Donut's hand was hovering warily above his pistol, just in case something got out of hand. And then he stiffened.

"Holy shit you're a girl!" I face palmed mentally. Is that really the only thing they cared about here?!

I sighed. "Yes, I'm a girl. So what?" I asked, my voice irritated. I just was so sick of people asking that. Like females were some endangered species or something. Donut took a step back. "O-oh, uhm, I'm sorry if I offended you, miss!" Donut waved his hands in front of himself quickly, sensing the anger in my voice. "I-i Just... I didn't think there were any girls here!" He explained quickly. I sighed quietly.

"It's fine, it's fine," I waved one of my hands dismissively, my other resting on my hip. The only thing I wanted to know was how he didn't realize I was a girl when he first came in. I wasn't wearing armor. Did he really confuse me for a boy, or was he just flat out ignoring my existence?

"A-anyway..." Donut started, feeling a lot more awkward than before. "Can I have the flag please?" He asked politely and I actually thought about why I shouldn't. But then I remembered that I wanted to see if I could change the timeline. So no, no flag for Donut.

"No, actually... uh... y-you don't want this flag..." I laughed nervously. Here came my shy and timid demeanor. Thanks, world.

Donut looked at me for a second and then tilted his helmet to look at Mike. Mike shrugged nervously.

"And why not..?" Donut asked, all traces of awkward feelings gone. He just wanted to get the flag and leave already. The others were probably waiting for his return to base right now! (not really)

"U-uh... b-because, uhm..." I looked over at Mike for help, and it took him a moment to get it. He gestured outside to Church and Tucker quickly and back at the flag, confused and trying to get a message across while Donut was focused on me. I shook my head and made a face at him. Donut looked back at Mike before he could do anything else, and placed his hand on his pistol holder. He must've thought we were plotting against him. In a way, we kind of are...

"Because it's sick!" Mike finally popped up, raising a hand and pointing his finger at the flag.

Me and Donut both facepalmed.

"Sick?" Donut asked testily, he really had to get back to base soon. This was taking way longer than expected.

"Yes! The flag... is sick." I groaned. This excuse was lame and didn't make sense, but that's what you get if you ask Mike for something. At least it was something, which is better than what I had. Which was nothing.

"By that, he means that, uhm..." I began, drawing Donuts attention back to myself so that Mike would stop fidgeting. "That is has a virus on it." I nodded.

Donut got scared then. "W-what kind of virus..?" He took a few steps back and stood in front of the entrance, ready to leave at once.

"A deadly kind. A kind that is very deadly and dead like," Mike repeated slowly. He probably had no idea what a virus was, but okay. He was scaring Donut, and that's all I needed right now.

Donut continued asking questions and Mike continued giving stupid answers until finally I sighed and gave in.

"Nevermind. Just take the stupid flag," I took a step away from the flag for him to take it. It really was not worth the trouble. And besides, if I remember correctly, Church gets shot for it later on. That guy is a dick, so by all means, Donut, take it!

"B-but... doesn't it have a virus?" Mike asked. I stood staring at him. Did he really think it had a virus on it now?! Jesus.

"No, it doesn't have a virus! It was a trick, Mike!" Mike and Donut both gasped. I swear to god-

"You tricked me?" Donut asked, hurt in his voice. I really did face palm then, and they both stared at me confused. "Why did you hit yourself, Alex?" Mike asked me slowly as if I was an idiot and I felt like crying in frustration. Mike was cute and funny, but he was really fucking annoying when it came time to be.

I turned on my heel and walked quickly over to the blue team flag. 'I wonder what Red team was doing right now' I wondered to myself as I pulled the flag out of its' holder in the ground. 'Probably not having to deal with this kinda thing..' I turned back toward the two and walked toward them.

"Here," I said as I handed the flag to Donut. Or, more accurately, threw it into his arms. He fumbled for a moment before regaining his composure with the flag in his hands. He began talking, but I wasn't having any of that. I turned him around forcefully and began pushing him out of our base. He really did not want that flag, but I pushed him out with it. It was now more than ever that I wished we had doors, so that way I could slam it. I stopped pushing him out of base and Mike stood behind me, watching quietly.

"There. No go away, please," I said as I made a shooing motion with my hands. He began talking again.

"I-I don't think- I mean, I-it might be important o-or- don't you want it- I-I can't-" I cut him off by shouting out Tuckers name. Not the best name to shout, considering he might use it against me another time, but I knew he would come if I called for him.

"WHAT?" He yelled back as he began walking over to my direction. "Tell me you finally came to your senses and decided you wanted to-" He paused when he walked around the corner. When he saw Donut there, he cursed and took out his pistol.

"Church! There's a red!" Church cursed(louder) too and ran over to us, rifle in hand. Donut looked around wildly for a minute before turning and running away quickly with the flag in his hands, waving it around by accident. Church and Tucker ran up to the roof of the base to try and catch him, Mike and I followed suit.

On our way up, we began briefing him on how he got our flag.

"Wait, let me get this straight," Church said as he began loading bullets into the one sniper rifle they had. "You just- gave that guy our flag?"

"Yes," I said flat out. I really didn't care if Church was pissed at me. At least he wouldn't get pissed at Mike. "..is that bad?" I cursed when Mike said something anyway.

"Bad? Oh no, that's not bad," Church began, and I could clearly hear the sarcasm I his voice while he turned around to look Mike in the visor. "Next time he comes over, why don't you help him blow up the whole God damned base?" Church raised his voice, irritated with Mike, while Tucker scouted the area for Donut.

"There," Tucker exclaimed, pointing out at the canyon where I could see a tiny red dot running around. Yup, definitely Donut running around in zig zags. "There he is!" Tucker said again when Church didn't respond. Church turned around, and took out the sniper. I took a step back and covered my ears lightly. Guns are supposedly very loud.

"Where?" Church asked, lifting the rifle's scope to his visor, scanning the area Tucker pointed at. He paused at a certain area. "Oh, yeah! Oh, I got him! He's sneaking around back behind the cliffs." Church observed for a moment, and I contemplated taking my hands off my ears. Nah. If I did, it'd just turn out like those cartoons- as soon as I took them off, he would fire, and I wouldn't hear anything.

"He must be one smart son of a bitch," Tucker said, placing one hand on his hip while he watched Donut as best as he could from this far. I snorted. Donut? Smart? Nah. Tucker heard me, though, and turned to look at me. "What?" He asked, taking his hand off of his hip. I straightened. "N-nothing.." I stuttered and cursed. All of these people were so damn tall! It was scary. Tucker also happened to notice the stutter, and I could almost certainly hear the smirk in his filtered voice as he took a slow step forward. "Oooh, why are you stuttering, Aaaaalex?" He drawled out my name, and my face heated up. I was never good with people flirting with me. I was easily embarrassed. Luckily, Church saved me from a world of embarrassment by interrupting our 'conversation'.

"Ah shit. Hey, Tucker, come take a look at his armor. It's red." Tucker turned around and walked back over to the ledge with Church. "Aw man..." Tucker commented under his breath. "That means it's their sergeant.." I was going to laugh, but after what just happened, I decided to hold it back.

"Well, at least now we know how he got by our defenses," Church stated, lowering the rifle for a second before raising it again. "Uh- you know, he came in the back door where you guys were standing..." Mike interrupted, bobbing his helmet as he talked. "ooooh," I snickered. Get burned, dicks.

"Yeah, okay," Tucker changed the subject quickly. "Well let's take him out then."

"Roger that."

Church raised the rifle a little to see better, and shot four bullets. I yelped, the sound lost in the loud noise, and tightened my grip on my ears. Holy shit! Those are loud!

"Ah, crap," Church switched the rifle for his pistol, resting the sniper rifle on his back, where a small holder stood for carrying larger weapons. I kept my ears covered as a dull ringing sounded out. I could tell they were talking, I just couldn't hear it. Their voices were fuzzy. I really needed a helmet like them. I blinked a few times, somehow thinking that was going to help. When the ringing died down, I shook my head to dismiss it.

"-alright, I've had it." Church stated, turning around and holding his pistol in his hands. Oops, what'd I miss?

"Rookies, you stay here," Church began, meaning me and Mike. "Me and Tucker will head through the teleporter. We'll cut him off at the pass."

"Right!" Mike agreed quickly, nodding his head once.

"Tucker, you ready?" Church asked, turning from the large green glowing rock in front of him to look at Tucker.

"Let's go." Church turned back to the rock, but before he stepped in, Tucker spoke up.

"Yeah, there is no way I'm going through that thing." "Tucker, we don't have time for this!"

Church and Tucker began arguing about whether they were going or not. I tuned out and instead focused on Donut. He was waving the flag around in the air. I get how they see he might've been taunting them, but pretty sure he was just trying to get them to stop shooting them. His ways of negotiation were horrible and I shook my head.

I tuned back into their conversation when I couldn't find anything else to focus on.

"For the record, I just want you to know that rocks are not people." Tucker said stiffly. What the hell were they talking about? Rocks being people? "Duly noted," Church responded. "Now get in there."

"Crap," Tucker cursed to himself when he realized he had to go through. "Alright. One- two..." He counted. He didn't say three before he ran through, and a small ripple and machinery noise enveloped around him and pulled him in.

And then Tucker was gone.

We stared at the spot for a moment before running over to the ledge to see if he got to the other side.

We waited.

And we waited.

Didn't look like he was coming out of the other side... "Huh," Mike began, voicing my thoughts. "He didn't come out the other side..."

Church replied slowly. "Yeeeahhh..." He looked back over to the teleporter. "I've, uh, I've decided I'm not going to use the teleporter." We waiting a moment before Church jumped over the ledge of the base and landed on the ground a few feet below.

"Okay, rookies, you two stay here! I'll be back with the flag!" And with that, Church ran off to get back our flag.

We stood on the roof in silence for a few more minutes as we watched Church run across the canyon to catch up to Donut, who was paused somewhere in the center of it. Right next to the teleporter that Tucker was supposed to come out of.

Mike and I watched them talk for another couple of minutes. Time is a lot slower here in the canyon, in real life. In the show it was as if this moment passed in two minutes, but it's been five minutes by now already and they were only talking.

I was going to turn around and leave Mike to watch them because of how quiet and boring it was up there, but right as I was turning to leave, I saw something.

I turn back around when Mike gasped. Tucker just popped out of the teleporter. I laughed.

They conversed for another couple of minutes, and Mike helped me breathe. I don't know why I found that so funny, but I kept laughing.

I only stopped when tears started escaping my eyes. I stood up and smiled, catching my breath while I wiped my eyes. Mike pat my back a few more times before I told him I was okay. He nodded, but stayed where he was with his hand on my shoulder. We both looked back out at them and I gasped.

There was a car driving toward them at full speed, and I could hear the polka music from here. All three of them paused with whatever they were doing at looked at the source of the sound as well. The car began shooting at them and Tucker and Church ran up a sandy ramp to hide behind some large boulders. The car was shooting at them really fast, and I faintly remembered that it had unlimited bullets or something. Mike looked nervous.

"Ohhh no, that's bad. That is really bad," He began pacing a few feet back in forth, trying to think of something to do to help them. "Oh my god that jeep has a really big gun..."

And then I remembered something.

"Come on, Mike!" I pulled Mike's hand away from his hip and began dragging him toward the tank the blue team had gotten just a while ago.

Mike got the hint when I began explaining to him what I wanted him to do with the tank, and he nodded once. "I will save Church, and he will like me, and he will be my best friend." He nodded again, seriously. Sometimes his devotion to Church scares me.

Mike jumped in the tank and started it up.

"Hello and thank you for activating the M808V Main Battle Tank. You may call me Sheila."

For a moment, Mike forgot that I was there, and he focused on the tank... Sheila.

"Hello... Sheila. Big tank lady..." Mike seemed very uncomfortable and confused. Semsing his confusion, Sheila spoke up again. "Would you like me to run the tutorial program?" She asked kindly. Mike nodded. "Oh, that'd be very nice. Thanks you," he responded. Sheila lowered her canon and began to drive off slowly. "Tutorial program: activated. Let's begin with some driving." Mike took in a shaky breath. Guess he wasn't used to talking tanks, huh? "okay.."

Mike then looked back up at me. "Wait-" Sheila stopped driving. "Yes?" She asked politely. "What about Alex?" Sheila paused. "Who? I am afraid I do not have any 'Alex's in my data base."

"No, she's not in your data base! She's right behind you." Sheila's canon turned around and faced me, and I took a step back. She is a lot more intimidating that I thought in person. For a moment, everything was quiet, and she just looked at me. Then her canon turned back around to face front again. "She can wait here."

And she drove off.

((holy shi-t I just didn't know when to stop writing! lmao sheila is rude to me ;u;))


	7. Chapter 7

(( Sorry for the delayed update! End of the school tests were really beating me... Hope you enjoy this! ))

I almost kicked myself about five minutes after Mike had left with Sheila.

Honestly- what the hell is wrong with me?!

I remembered about what happened with Mike, Sheila, and Church after he left. Why is my memory failing me like this? I groaned and put my head in my hands. I was sitting at the edge of the blue base with my feet hanging off the side.

What?

There was no way I was going to catch up with a tank, even with the slow driving speed it was at. Even if I could catch up( and that is a BIG if ), I wouldn't go either way. There are going to be explosions and lots(and lots) of gunfire. Now, I know that you many think I was being a coward, but honestly, I don't have a suit- so, fuck off.

I took my head out of my hands and instead chose to watch Mike and Sheila from a distance. As of right now, Sheila was driving into a rock, and I could see Mike waving his hands around.

Wonder what's going on with them.

Sheila pauses and starts to go backward, and I see them turn to face the direction of the others.

Wow. Nice one, Alex. You just sent Mike to go kill Church. Won't he be proud.

Yeah I know I said it'd be okay if Church got shot, but being shot and being fucking _exploded_ are two very different concepts, I'll have you know.

I looked up in the distance at the jeep and the big boulders that Tucker and Church were hiding behind. Sheesh, I could see everything from here.

..

The view was actually really nice.

You know, after you get past the whole 'I'm in a deserted canyon with a bunch of idiot simulation troopers'.

Nice.

I saw Mike and Sheila driving up to Grif and Simmons and I cringed. I knew what was going to happen next.

Grif and Simmons turned to look at Sheila and Mike, and I could see how surprised(and/or slightly terrified) to see a giant tank. With a blue in it.

Grif, Simmons, Mike, and Sheila just stood there for a few minutes(probably processing what they were seeing and trying not to piss themselves), and I sighed. Wow. The show makes it seem so much more fun and entertaining. This is just anti-clamatic.

And then Tucker began running toward the jeep.

I picked my head up and tried to remember how exactly he died, so that way I knew when to turn away. I was not going to watch Church die.

And then Grif began running toward the jeep too.

Well fuck.

Sheila's cannon tilted upward to face the jeep that both Tucker and Grif were running toward at the moment, and I kicked my foot. I am such an idiot.

Sheila shot her main cannon at the jeep, and it exploded, leaving large puffs of smoke and fire embers in it's wake. Sheila began following Grif and Simmons as they ran away from her and the burning jeep. Tucker had ran back into the safety of the boulders, alongside Church.

I groaned.

This is all my fault. I knew that. But the worst part is that they wouldn't know it. They would blame Mike for it, and he'd get into a lot of trouble for something he didn't do. But what was I going to do? Oh yes, hello, it's my fault that you died, Church. How, you ask? Because I am actually from the twenty first century and you are a show that I watch all day every day, so I knew what was going to happen to you!

Yeah, no.

I could see Grif and Simmons freaking out from the cannon chasing them across the canyon, even hearing them yelling out curse words while running around in zig zags to try to avoid being hit.

After a few seconds of running like that, they hid behind a smaller boulder, crouching down so that Sheila wouldn't hit them with her explosions. Sheila had stopped a little ways away from them, opting to continue shooting them until they come out or until they do something.

After a few minutes like that, Sheila shooting at the boulder and Tucker and Church hiding behind the other boulders, she stopped firing and seemed to be looking around for new targets.

And then I saw Tucker come out from behind the boulder and shout to Mike and Sheila.

"Hey, Rookie, good job, man!" Tucker yelled loud enough for Mike to hear him. I held my breath. This is how Church dies, isn't it?

Tucker continued yelling to Mike.

"Why didn't you tell us you knew how to drive the tank?" Sheila's cannon turned toward the boulders and tilted upward to face Tucker. Aw fuck.

And then it hit me.

Why was Tucker the one yelling at Mike? Wasn't it Church who yelled at him and got shot my Sheila? I furrowed my brows in confusion and squinted to see them better. Yeah, that was definitely Tucker, not Church. What the-

And then Sheila fired her canon at Tucker.

I gasped and covered my ears, but I couldn't look away. The scene was a lot more gruesome when it's in real life and not a video game/show. There was blood all over the boulders and burnt body parts fell from the sky to land on top of Sheila and Mike, bounce off, and land in the grass.

I heard Church yelling out Tucker's name, and I just stared at where he was standing before.

But- Church was supposed to- Why did Tucker- what the fuck?

Sheila lowered her canon to point it at the ground.

Grif and Simmons took this chance to run back to red base, and I watched them leave hurriedly.

Then Sheila raised the canon again and shot at the jeep, sending it flying toward red base. After spinning in the air a few times, it landed on the top of the red base's roof, right in front of three reds. Then Sheila continued shooting at the red base, and the three reds ran to find cover to hide behind. Donut(or Sarge, I couldn't tell who it was due to the regulation red armour) picked up the blue flag and hid behind it. He then tried to give it to one of the other reds, who both hurriedly ran to the other side to get away from the flag.

They thought it was bad luck or something.

I saw Church start to climb down from the boulders to get to Mike and Sheila, and I wondered for a split second about his armor color.

Then I laughed.

Out loud.

To myself.

I mean, yeah, I shouldn't be laughing at anybody dying, but I was stupid.

And apparently I needed glasses, too.

It _was_ Church who had died, but I thought the blue on his armor was Tucker's color. I had momentarily forgotten that Tucker had black armour, courtesy of running through the mysterious teleportation door thingy here on the roof of the blue base. Tucker was alive, Church was dead. The show was still running it's normal course. Thank the gods.

When I had managed to stop laughing, I saw Tucker running toward Mike and Sheila(who was still firing at the jeep), and I jumped up onto my feet, stretching for a minute before climbing down the base carefully. They make it look easy, but the ramp here was actually really steep.

I ran out of base and began jogging to catch up with Tucker and Mike.

And also Sheila.

I was within hearing range of their conversation a few moments later. Thank god I went jogging every day, so I was in great shape.

"-well, unlock it!" Tucker yelled at Mike, and I smiled again when thinking about how I thought that was Church. I don't know why I found it(or still find it) so funny. I just do.

"Last time I unlocked it, I killed Church!" Mike yelled back. Bravo, Mikey, you stood up for yourself.

"Oh, right... Keep shooting the jeep then." Tucker left him alone, probably not wanting to be exploded the same way Church was moments ago, and turned to spot me slowing to a walk a few feet away.

"Hey, rookie," Tucker greeted me curtly and nodded at me. "Yo," I greeted back simply. I was panting slightly from the jog, but not a lot. He looked at me for a moment and I began to get uncomfortable in the silence(except, of course, the tank firing explosions every few seconds). Right before I opened my mouth to say something, Tucker beat me to it.

"You ran here?" Tucker asked. I rolled my eyes at his suspicion. Did he really think a girl couldn't run a couple miles?

I dismissed Tucker and walked a little closer to Mike and Sheila. Only a little. Sheila scared me, and the noise was really _really_ loud. I needed to ask these guys if they had any spare armor for me to use(this has nothing to do with Church's sudden death, mind you).

"Hey, Mike. You okay?" Mike looked down at me and (seemed to) lighten up. "Hello, Alex!" He greeted me happily, glad to see me. I smiled at his attitude. And then Tucker spoke up again.

"You're asking if he's okay?! He just killed Church for christ's sake!" Tucker threw his hands in the air and I groaned.

"Yes, I know he did. But Church is dead, so it doesn't matter if I ask him, he won't answer me," I snapped. Harsh, I know(and rude), but it was true.

"I'm fine. Are you okay? You were all alone at base. I don't like being alone," Mike asked back, absentmindedly adding the last part.

"Yeah, I'm good. I could hear the explosions from base... and I don't really like being alone either, Mike." I smiled at Mike. Tucker took a step toward us and looked between us.

"I forgot to ask, by the way, why do you call him 'Mike'?" Tucker asked, his helmet looking at my while his finger pointed toward Mike. I shrugged my shoulders. "Because that's his name." Mike perked up and pointed his finger at me. "And her name is Alex! Or, no, that's a nickname. Mike is a nickname too, since my name is actually Michael, but Mike is easier. Just like Alex!" We both looked at Mike, but only Tucker looked back down at me(did I mention how tall her is because holy fuck he is tall) and looked between us again. I knew what he was thinking before he said it.

"Tucker, no-" "Are you guys-" We both said said simultaneously.

Tucker looked at me and Mike looked between us, not understanding what Tucker had meant.

"No, Tucker, we are not," I repeated, and Tucker shook his head, glancing up at the sky. I felt my face heat up at the thought of what Tucker was implying, and I looked down at my shoes, kicking the dirt.

"Uh oh..." I heard Tucker mutter. Sheila stopped firing, and it was quiet for a few seconds. I looked up at where Tucker was looking at to see-

two... ships? My eyes widened. Yeah, that was definitely two space ships flying toward our positions. They flew over the red base and began opening their canons. Tucker backed away and pulled out his pistol, but in all honesty, what in the fuck is a pistol going to do against two space ships? Tucker grabbed my arm and pulled me back with him, still walking back.

"H-hey, Caboose," Tucker called out when we were a few feet away. "You might want to get out of the tank.."

Tucker picked up his pace and dragged me along as the ships got closer.

"Like right now."

Mike saw the two ships and began pushing buttons and pulling levers. He panicked and began mashing them, trying to open the door. "I-I can't figure out to get this thing open!" He yelled angrily, even pushing the door to try to open it.

"Rookie!" "Mike!" Tucker and I both yelled. "Get out now!" Tucker yelled.

The ships began firing explosives as they got closer and Mike began hyperventilating.

"Okay- okay, open the door." Mike said to Sheila firmly. Nothing happened. The explosions got closer(and louder) and Mike whimpered.

"Open the door!" Nothing still. "Okay, Uh, Sheila, will you please open the door?" Mike said, more politely and a lot more terrified. Poor Mike. I covered my ears as the explosives began getting unbearably loud for me to handle.

A second later, Sheila spoke up as she opened the door for Mike. "Driver canopy; open."

Mike jumped out as an explosion landed right in front of the tank, and he began running over to us right as the tank was exploded, yelling "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! Running, running, running!" as he ran. He was close enough to the explosion that we could visibly see his shield being damaged, and he was thrown a few feet in front of him. He continued running from the now burning tank.

Mike was running so fast(and he was afraid to stop) that he didn't stop when he reached us, resulting in his running into Tucker. Literally. They both fell to the floor with Mike lying on top of him. Tucker groaned from the impact and Mike panted, trying to regain his breath from running so fast.

"Man..." Mike breathed out. "That was close."

"Rookie..." Tucker groaned out. It must've been hard to breath with Mike on top of him. "Yeah?" Mike sat up a little to look at Tucker.

"Get off of me."


	8. Chapter 8

((NOTE: Please review, guys! It really helps me and I feel insecure when I don't get any reviews for two chapters straight ;-;))

Alright, so Sheila had been royally fucked over by the explosion. She called out to someone named 'Dave', or 'David' while she was shutting down (Mike still says that she died, not shut down. That guy is way over dramatic), and then started singing Daisey. Whatever that was supposed to mean. I was back at base with Mike and Tucker, the latter trying to reach blue command and the former cleaning the soot off of said latter from when he went into the teleporter.

"Come in blue command," Tucker called out to no one in particular, holding a button on the side of his helmet that I assumed was the radio. "This is Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha, do you read me?"

Mike sighed and stood up, holding a dirtied black and gray rag in his hands. The rag started out as white..

"Okay. That is the last of it," Mike told Tucker (though I didn't think he was listening). "Your armor is clean now." Tucker did seem to be (partially) listening, though, as he turned around and asked Mike, "Did you get all the black stuff off?" I groaned at Tucker. How many times do I have to tell him?

"It's soot, not 'black stuff'," I made air quotes around 'black stuff' while talking to Tucker. Tucker just waved me off with his hand and I rolled my eyes at him. "Hey, wait, hold up-" Tucker put his hand back on the radio button on his helmet. Mike and I waited quietly.

Everything was quiet for a few seconds, and I thought about asking what he wanted us to be quiet for before he began talking again.

"Hello, Command! We need help," Tucker talked quickly. Oh, I guess he was listening to his radio?

More silence as Tucker listened to his radio. "Uh, I don't know the technical, military term is for it, but, uh, we're pretty fucked down here. We need men." I shot Tucker a look and he just shrugged at me.

Then Tucker waved his hand while talking to what I assumed was command again. "N-no, no! Not- not like that!" Jeez, whatever command said sure got him flustered. "We need more men to help us!"

Silence.

"Yeah, that got blown up, too." I assumed he was talking about Sheila, the tank. "Yeah, we know..."

I laid back on the rock I was sitting on and pretty much zoned out of Tucker's conversation with command. It sounded pretty weird to just hear him talking and having to assume whatever the other person was saying.

That is until Tucker started yelling. Then I got interested again.

"Sixteen days?! That's almost two weeks!" Uh, Tucker, 16 days is more than two weeks. Tucker began pacing through the sand under his feet while he listened to whatever command was saying, and I sat up on my elbows to look at him. What were they talking about?

"Uh, I like the 'in an hour' one," Mike spoke up. "Yeah, me too," Tucker agreed, and I momentarily wondered what he meant before I realized something. Mike could hear their conversation too? Aw, fuck, that means I'm the only one who doesn't know what's going on.

Damn it..

"Hey, Mike, what's happening?" I asked him, sitting up on the rock fully to look at him. He turned to look back at me and began explaining things quickly so he could go back to listening to their conversation.

"Blue command is gonna send a freelancer over to us, they said he should be here in a few hours or so."

I nodded slowly. Freelancer, huh? Hm... sounded familiar.

"Whoever he is, make sure he can fix a tank," Tucker said to command, closing the conversation. He? I thought the freelancer they sent to us was a girl?

"What's a freelancer?" Mike asked, turning to look at Tucker. Tucker responded quickly, "Freelancers are independent. They're not Red or Blue," I scoffed. Did he think that Red and Blue was everything? Curious, I continued listening to his description. "They're just guns for hire who'll fight for whoever has the most money."

You mean... "Like a mercenary!" Mike exclaimed. "Right," Tucker nodded, and I knew he was going to make a joke when he uses that tone. "Or like your mom, when the rent's due." Mike stared at him for a second. Whether he was pissed or confused about what Tucker said, I couldn't see it due to his helmet.

"Oh, that's funny," it sounded sarcastic, but with Mike, I couldn't tell. I just shook my head and laid back down on the rock while they talked about the joke he just cracked.

"Yo, Tucker, what's the name of the Freelancer? Or did they not say?" I asked after there was a short moment of silence. It was really bothering me that I couldn't remember who the freelancer was that was coming to 'help' us.

"Oh, uh, command said his name was 'Freelancer Tex' or something, I dunno," Tucker shrugged his shoulders like it didn't really matter, but if I remember correctly, this 'Tex' guy was supposed to change their lives dramatically.

So yeah, he was pretty important.

"Tuuuckerrrrr..." A familiar voice rang out, echoing to make himself sound like one of those clichéd ghost voices. "TuuuUUUUCCKKKERRRRRR" he raised his voice. Tucker and Mike both looked over at the voice and I sat up to look at him. Oh.

"Who the hell are you!?" Tucker freaked at the transparent Church standing in front of him. Seriously? They spent years together, and he can't remember what his armor looked like?

Obviously Church wasn't thinking of this, because he just continued with his cliché ghost voice.

"I am the ghooost of Churrrrch, and I've come back with a warrrrniiiing!"

"You're not Church!" Mike spoke up. "Church is blue, you're white," he laughed like he just solved a puzzle and I sighed. He didn't know how ghosts work. Though, technically, Church wasn't a ghost...

"Rookie, shut up, man!" Church said in his normal voice, turning to look at Mike. "I'm a freakin' ghost! Have you ever seen a Blue ghost before?"

"Yeah, that's definitely him," Tucker muttered under his breath at me and I snickered quietly. Church turned to look at me.

"Oh great. Both of the rookies are here." Church sighed. "Now I gotta start over again." Church cleared his throat.

"Tuuckerrrr, Tuckkkerrrrr! I have come back with a waaaarrrrning," Church said, trying to get back to where he was before Mike interrupted him. And then Tucker interrupted him

"It is really necessary to do the voice?" He asked bored. Apparently people dying then coming back is often around here. That, or it just took a lot to spook Tucker. "Yeah, it's kind of annoying..." Mike spoke up, agreeing with Tucker. Honestly, Mike was the last person I woulda thought would say something like that. Especially to someone like Church. Especially Church, himself.

"Ffffine!" Church groaned, just wanting to get to the point already. "Okay, here's the deal; I've come back from the dead to give you a warning-" this is where I interrupted him.

"But you're not really alive, sooo, you didn't really 'come back from the dead'." Mike looked at me like I was a genius and Tucker snickered while Church yelled in frustration.

"Okay! I'm still dead! I'm a ghost! What the fuck ever, just let me get to the point, rookie!" I held up my hands in surrender, and Church continued.

"ANYWAY, I've come back from the dead," Church glared at me here, "to give you a warning about Tex." I knew that freelancer was bad news. I just can't remember him though, which was really aggravating. "Don't let-" Church tried to continue his warning before Mike stepped in once again.

"What's the warning?" I cracked a smile at Church's reaction. I really liked to piss people off solely for their reactions, so this was gold for me.

"Just shut UP for one second and I'll tell you!" Church yelled at Mike. Mike took a wary step back. "oh, sorry.." "Seriously, man! I mean, I'm coming back from the great beyond here-" Alright now this is stupid. He got Mike to shut up, so just continue his speech already.

"Church, just shut up and continue your warning speech," I sighed. Tucker and Church both looked at me, surprised, while Mike just stood behind Tucker looking dejected (probably from Church yelling at him).

"What?" I asked to both of the blues staring at me.

"I didn't know you had it in you, Chica!" Tucker laughed at the same time that Church yelled "Excuse me, rookie?!"

I just gace Church a look. Honestly, he really just wanted us to stop him, didn't he? "Just continue your warning! Don't you have, like, limited time here or something?" I asked, waving my hand around to emphasize my point.

"...how did you know that?" Church asked me. Oh great. I thought Church and I were past the part where he was suspicious of me and didn't trust me, where the only reason he let me stay with the Blue team was because he thought he could use me as some kind of leverage for the Red team (me being the only female in the canyon).

I shrugged.

There was silence for a moment while me and Church stared each other down, Tucker and Mike looking between us.

"...alright. So, here's the deal-" Church finally gave in and began explaining the warning again.

"Is this the warning?"

"Alright that's it," Church turned to look at Mike quickly. "I swear to God, Caboose, your ass is haunted. When we're done here, I am going to haunt you."

"Yeah, you're even starting to bug me," Tucker said, turning to look at Mike as well.

"Okay! Tucker, you remember that I told you I was stationed on Sidewinder before they transferred me here to Blood Gulch, right?" Church asked Tucker quickly, trying to make a point.

"No."

"Sidewinder?" Mike asked and I sighed. Why can't he just stop talking. He's only making things worse for himself. "Isn't that the Ice planet?"

"Yes." Church sighed, Mike began asking questions about it excitedly and I put my head into my hands. Is Church even going to get to tell us the warning? Because I am getting really impatient.

Not that I was any patient to begin with, that is.

I tuned back in when Church began telling a story about Sidewinder.

"One day while I was there, everything was just like normal. I remember I was out on patrol with my partner, Jimmy. Jimmy was a real good kid. Everybody liked him.."

Tucker cut in, "Do you think I was a good kid, Church?" and I quickly intervened before Church could get pissed again. "Tucker shut up and let him talk." "For once, I agree with the rookie," Church nodded, then began his story again.

"Like I said, guys were hanging around, waiting for some action, bitching about the cold. Anyway, Jimmy was in the middle of telling me all about this girlfriend he had back home... and that.. is when Tex showed up." His voice became darker as he progressed. This was probably a bad memory for him.

"Private Mickey was the first to go.. He was halfway across the base when all of a sudden he just started screaming bloody murder."

"The whole thing was over before it even started. Tex killed them off, one by one. Poor Jimmy was the last one to go. Tex walked up to him, pulled his skull right out of his head, and beat him to death with it," I gave him a look, deciding against interrupting to tell him that that isn't even possible. Tucker did it instead.

"Wait a second... how do you beat someone to death with their own skull? That doesn't seem physically possible!" Tucker exclaimed.

"That's exactly what Jimmy kept screaming..." I was seriously starting to doubt his story. "Bottom line is, these Freelancers, they're bad news, and Tex? One of the worst."

"If he's such a badass, why didn't he kill you?" Mike asked Church. "To be honest, I don't know why I'm not dead. He coulda' killed me at any point.. But maybe it's because Tex and I have run into each other once before.." I contemplated how they had 'ran into each other' as Church put it, if he was just a simulation trooper and Tex was a badass Freelancer, what're the chances that they would have met? Twice?

Tucker began asking Church about where he ran into Tex, and I listened. I swear, it's like these blues are reading my mind when I ask these questions.

"You, uh, you remember that girl I told you about? Back home?" When Tucker nodded, Church continued. "Well, let's just say that Tex is the real reason why we never got married." Before any of us had any chance to ask more questions, Church began talking quickly and hurridly, panicked.

"Guys, I'm fading fast and I don't know when I'll be back! Just- Listen to my warning!" When do these guys ever listen to anything you say? "Don't let Tex get involved here!'

"Okay," Tucker nodded. "I mean it, Tucker. No fighting, No scouting, nothing!" Church began fading away, and his voice got quieter as he spoke quicker. "You'll regret it-" And with that final message, Church was gone.

"So!" Tucker began a few moments of silence later. "Tex and Church were after the same girl!" I sighed. "I told you his girlfriend was a slut," Mike spoke up.

I groaned.

I am surrounded by idiots.


	9. Chapter 9

I can't believe these guys.

About ten minutes after Church had left, Tucker and Mike were just sitting about, doing nothing. There was nothing to do, so I had gone to go relax inside (it was really hot out here). I ended up falling asleep on Mike's bed again. I don't know how long I was out, but judging by the position of the sun, I still didn't know.

Remember time moves a lot quicker here.

It felt as if I was asleep for around half an hour or so, so not that long. I awoke to shooting, and, thinking it was the Reds again, I was fully prepared to go out there and tell them to fuck off. But as I walked down the hall of the base, combing through my hair with my fingers to try to keep out the knots, I realized it was only one gun shooting. It was a constant stream of shooting, save for a small pause between around 8-9 shots to which I assumed they were reloading their gun. I went outside to see what was going on, but soon realized that it was coming from the roof. After going up there (or, rather, after going to the top of the ramp. I didn't want to go in blind), I saw the one person Church didn't want anywhere near us.

Tex.

And that brought me to my current position. I was standing at the top of the ramp, hands on my hips, watching as Tex was shooting around Mike and Tucker was explaining what was going on.

"And that's basically it, sir," Tucker crossed his arms. "They have five guys over there and a big jeep." "And your flag," Tex added snidely. Even without knowing his real voice, I could tell that that wasn't it. It was heavily changed and sounded slightly robotic.

Tex continued to shoot at Mike. I sighed angrily, and Mike finally took notice of me.

"Alex!' Mike whisper shouted, afraid of moving. Tucker turned around to look at me and uncrossed his arms when he saw how pissed I looked. Tex continued shooting Mike, though I did notice he had paused for a split second before continuing to fire.

"Uh- I-I'll be right back, sir," Tucker dismissed himself from Tex and walked over to me quickly. "What's up?" He whispered when he reached me. I heard Tex's shots slow down and I realized he was listening to our conversation. He tilted his visor back to look at me from the corner of his eyes and I glared at him. After that, he turned and began shooting Mike again. I motioned for Tucker to follow me anyway. I didn't want to take any chances of him eavesdropping on us.

"..okay," Tucker nodded and followed me. He chuckled for a second before beginning to make an innuendo. "I hope it's-" "Don't." I cut him off quickly and he shut up. After we got to the bottom of the ramp, I looked at his visor hoping that he got the message that I was pissed at him.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I thought Church said not to let Tex get involved here! Did you not hear anything he said about him!?" I whispered harshly and Tucker took half a step back.

"I-I know, but-" "No 'but's! Tucker, he made you promise!" I took a step forward and straightened my back. Tucker scoffed. "Man, I promise a lot of things. Most of the time I don't even know what I agreed to," he laughed until I glared at him. "Sorry.."

I closed my eyes and sighed.

"Hey, we won't even let him do anything too serious, 'kay? We just want the flag back, then we'll tell him to leave. Okay?" Tucker asked in hopes of making me feel better. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought he was being nice and sentimental. But I do know better. And I know he was just scared of me when I was angry.

I opened my eyes to look at his visor again. I really don't like the fact that I couldn't look them in the eyes. How early did they wake up? The last time I had gone to sleep at the same time they had, I awoke to everybody already awake and in their armor. I doubted they slept in their armor, so they must've woken up early.

"Fffine..." I sighed quietly and Tucker visibly relaxed. "Okay, thank you! I just-" before Tucker could finish what he was trying to say, and explosion went off on the roof. That's where I drew the line. Tucker saw that I was no longer relaxed and he took a step to the right to get out of my way. I stomped to the roof.

"Excuse me-" I began, walking straight in front of Tex to stop him from shooting at Mike (who now had soot and ash on parts of his armor from the explosion) "-what're you doing?" I asked, glaring at his visor, though I knew he probably didn't care. And I was right, he didn't. He simply raised his gun above my head and continued to shoot at Mike. Ignoring how painfully loud the shot rang out in my ears, I did the last thing anyone should probably do to a Freelancer.

I grabbed the gun and lowered it to point at the ground, using my left foot to hook around his ankles and kick, knocking him off of his feet.

He let go of the pistol while he was falling, and I held it as I watched him land on his hands, apushing himself back up to his feet. When he was back on his feet, he went for the pistol. When I pulled it away from his reach, he did the same maneuver to me and I fell on my back with a thud, groaning at the loss of air. He went to place his foot on my stomach to stop me from getting up, but I rolled out from underneath him and used my hands to push me back up to a standing position. Tex stood in a ready position, back slightly hunched as his hands went up in front of him, his knees bent. We both stood, staring at each other for a second, before I dropped the pistol in front of him and turned to walk down the ramp. On my way down, I turned to look at Tex again.

"For the record, we do not use team-mates as target practice."


	10. Chapter 10

I was sitting on a rock just outside of base when I saw Tex leaving. Tucker and Mike came out a few seconds later and walked over to me.

"Hheeeey, that's my rock," Tucker whined. I ignored him and continued watching as Tex ran over to Red base. I turned to look at the two Blues after I couldn't see his black amor anymore.

"Where's he going?" I asked, pointing a finger in the direction of Tex. Tucker came over and climbed on top of the rock as well. I scoot over so that he could sit with me. Hey, it was his rock after all.

"Oh he's gonna go get the flag back," Tucker said, though I knew he was hiding something.

"And kill all the Reds!" Mike added in happily. There's what he was hiding. I sighed and shook my head at Tucker. "You said-"

"Yeah, I know, I said he was just gonna get the flag. But after you kicked him, he got pissed at us and wouldn't listen to me!" Tucker threw his hands in the air before they landed on his knees. "Speaking of which..." Tucker began.

"Where did you learn those awesome moves?" Mike asked excitedly. "They were awesome!" He emphasized awesome, and Tucker nodded. "For once, I gotta agree with the rookie here. Where did you learn to do that?" I shrugged my shoulders once before bringing my knees up and hugging them to my chest, resting my cheek on my knees to look at Tucker's visor.

"Dunno. Took a few martial arts classes as a kid, but I never got anywhere with them. Guess it was just instinct..." I sighed and closed my eyes. "Instinct? He wasn't doing anything-" I opened my eyes and gestured to Mike. He said a silent 'oh yeah' before he stopped talking.

"Can I sit on the rock?" Mike asked us. "No," Tucker quickly responded, making Mike 'aw' and look at the ground. I laughed quietly. "What?" Tucker looked at me.

"You two are adorable."

Tucker sputtered for an answer and Mike only cheered. "Yay!"

"Hey, Tucker," I called Tucker's name. He turned to look at me and crossed his legs on the rock, scooting back so he didn't fall. "Yeah?" "Can I use the rifle? Y'know, to look at what's going on at Red base." Tucker looked up and hummed. "I don't know. I mean, Church might get upset at us for letting a rookie use it," he tapped his knee with his fingers.

"Why not?" I asked, lifting my head.

"Oh, Church loves it." Mike said slowly. I looked at him for a second before looking over at Tucker for an explanation.

"Church is always the one using the rifle. He doesn't like anybody else using it unless he gives it to them specifically..." He shrugged nonchalantly. I hummed as an answer and the three of us just looked over at Red base to try and guess what was happening.

"Hey, Tucker..." I called again. "Yeah?" he answered.

"What's your first name?" I looked at Tucker and he looked back at me. Mike looked between us and decided now would be best to go back inside base. "Why do you ask?" I shrugged. "Just curious. I call Mike by his first name, so why not you?" I tilted my head and smiled. He looked at me for a second longer before sighing and letting his head droop to look at his legs.

"It's Lavernius. Don't laugh, I know it's stupid," he added the second part before I could say anything. I smiled.

"It's not... stupid. It's just.. unique," I assured him. He looked up at me in both gratitude and confusion. "You aren't going to say anything about it sounding like a black name?" I looked at his visor for a second, trying to see if he was kidding. When I realized he wasn't I looked up at the sky and hummed.

"Nah, sounds more Asian to me..." I kidded with him. It took him a second, but he burst out laughing. I joined him.

Our laughter died down and we were both just smiling like idiots (or at least I was, I still couldn't see through his armor) right as an explosion went off. It was large enough to be heard, but small enough that we didn't feel it. We looked over at Red base to see a small cloud of smoke rising in the air and Tucker whistled. "Damn..."

Tucker slid off the rock and landed on his feet with a thud. He turned around and offered to help me off.

"Why thank you, Mr. Tucker," I laughed while Tucker helped me down. He scoffed. "You're welcome, Miss Alex." I rolled my eyes. He probably didn't know my last name. We both went up to the roof to see Mike with the rifle. I looked at Tucker. I thought Church had to give it to them specifically... Tucker just shrugged and walked up to Mike, waiting beside him.

"Man... he is really kicking their asses..." Mike commented quietly. "How come I never get the fucking sniper rifle..?" Tucker mumbled and I snickered. He looked at me before looking back out at the Red base. I couldn't see much from here. My eyesight wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't as good as other peoples'.

"I'm really glad Tex is on our team and not theirs." Mike lowered the rifle and sighed. "Sure makes things a lot easier on us," Tucker commented. Mike nodded, "Yeah.. I think switching Tex for Church was a good trade." I flinched. Ouch, Mike, that was mean.

"It definitely seems like your killing Church is starting to work out for us!" Tucker nodded in approval and I rolled my eyes. These guys are dicks. They continued their conversation on how Tex is better than Church and I sighed. I waited for Tex to return the flag while they talked about Tex.

"Blue team, flag returned." I jumped at the sudden voice and calmed down, realizing it was just Church fucking around with us. Tucker and Mike both freaked, though. "What the- Who said that?" Tucker turned around to see Church standing a few feet behind me. I turned as well. Church cleared his throat.

"Sorry, that was me. I, uh... I guess I had something stuck in my throat.." Church cleared his throat again. "Your flag is back, by the way." Mike turned around to see Church.

"Hey! It's Church!" Mike greeted happily, as if the whole conversation they just had about how sucky Church was had never happened. Church looked at him.

"Yeah, it's me. Hey, Caboose." Church greeted quickly. What was the rush for?

"Hey, Church. What're you up to?" Mike lowered the rifle so that it pointed at the ground.

Church laughed. "Caboose... I'm not really here to make small talk, Okay? How'd you guys get your flag back?" He asked, suspicious. Oh. That was the rush. Tucker and Mike visibly tensed at what he was hinting at.

"W-what? Oh, uh... t-that flag? We've always had that!" Tucker laughed nervously. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that wasn't going to work, Tucker.

"Tucker, who do you think you're trying to fool- hey, wait a second... Where's Tex?" Church asked, looking around. Tucker sighed, defeated, and Mike looked down at his feet. "He's at Red base, beating the shit out of the Reds," I spoke up, seeing as no one else was.

"Oh, great! This is so typical!" Church threw his hands into the air. "What was the one thing I told you guys NOT to do?!" "Not to let him get involved..?" Tucker asked quietly. "Exactly! And what do you do?!" He began shouting at them in frustration. "We... let him get involved..." Mike answered dejectedly.

"And not just a little involved! How involved?" "Very, very involved..." Mike drawled out.

Church groaned in anger and turned around, putting his hands on his head. "I cannot believe you guys... Caboose, what's going on now?" Church turned back around to look at Mike. He quickly turned to look at Red base, lifting the rifle to his visor.

…

"He's captured isn't he?" Church asked at the silence.

"Yep... he's... definitely captured. Or dead. Captured or dead.." Tucker walked over to stand next to Church, and Mike gasped. "Or captured AND dead!"

"Oh well that's just perfect!" Church groaned. "What?" Tucker finally spoke up. "What is your problem, man? What do you care if he's captured? I thought you hated that guy for stealing your girlfriend or something?" Church looked at Tucker. "I never said I hated Tex. I just said that she was the reason why we never got married."

"...she?" Mike asked.

I looked over at Red base while Church explained how he knew Tex and that Tex was really a girl (I knew it!).

"Lemme get this straight," Tucker began after a few moments of quiet. "You're telling me that the guy that showed up here, scared the living shit out of us, shot at Caboose, fought Alex, and beat the hell out of the Reds wasn't a guy at all? That he was a chick? And on top of that, she was your ex-girlfriend?"

"In a nutshell, yes. That's an excellent summary."

"I should have known. She didn't like me," Mike lowered his head. "Girls never like me.." He looked up at me quickly. "Except for Alex."

"Caboose, I don't think anybody likes you," Tucker responded. "I like me..." Mike whined.

"I don't think I've seen a girl that mean before-" Tucker began, but he cut himself off when he looked over at me. "Oh wait. Nevermind."

"Wait, wait wait," Mike began, holding up his hand. "If she's a girl, then why is she named Tex?" Good point, Mike.

"Uh, because she's from Texad," Church said, as if it was obvious. "Duh."

After a moment of silence, Church spoke up again. "Trust me, it makes sense. Besides, you can't really blame her for being so aggressive. She got recruited into some kind of weird experimental program back during basic, where they infused her armor with this really aggressive AI." Right, Omega. Or, O'Malley, as he calls himself.

"...A...I..." Mike began and I didn't feel like going through this so I answered quickly. "A.I means Artificial Intelligence." Mike nodded his head. "Oh."

"So, the military put this program in her head, and that program made her a killer. But underneath it all, she's really a sweet, down home girl?" Tucker asked Church, confused.

"Oh, hell no! She was always a rotten bitch. Now, she's a rotten bitch with cybernetic enhancements."

"So how are you doing, Caboose? Are you following any of this whatsoever?" Church turned to look at Mike. He lowered the rifle and thought for a second.

"I think so..." He began slowly. "That guy Tex is really a robot, and you're his boyfriend. Which makes you..." I sighed. "A gay robot!" He yelled.

Church and Tucker both looked at Mike like he was crazy (he probably was) and I just rolled my eyes.

"Yeah. That's right. I am a gay robot," Church said sarcastically. He just wanted to get this over with.

"And you, Derrix? How're you with all of this?" He sighed. How did he know my last name? The only person I told was Mike, and-

Oh.

Mike probably told him my full name. The traitor.

"I'm fine."

Church nodded and turned back to look at Tucker. "Well don't worry, I have a great plan to rescue Tex."

~~~o0o~~~

Tucker and I were sitting behind one of the boulders blocking us from the Red base view. I had never been this close to Red base, but it wasn't anything special. It looked exactly like Blue base, just... with red lights instead of blue lights. Church had told us his 'master plan' earlier.

Tucker and Mike were supposed to go through the teleporter to make their armor all black, just like Tex's armor, and run around the front of the Red base as a distraction. From there, Church was going to possess one of the Reds to get Tex out of their prison. But I had brought up the fact that I had no role to play in this and I didn't want to be left behind, so Church decided that I would just tag along to watch, but I wouldn't have a role.

So here I was, sitting out front of Red base with Tucker in his soot covered armor, ready to go when they were needed. Mike was further from us, hiding behind a smaller boulder a few feet away from us.

There wasn't really a reason for us to be hiding behind rocks, we just wanted to sit down while we waited for Church and we saw a few rocks.

Tucker looked over at Red base. "Alright, they're on the roof. C'mon, Caboose, let's go."

Tucker and Caboose both stood up and began running around, heading toward the Red base.

After they successfully got the orange one, Grif, to come out of base, they hid behind a larger boulder closer to their base. While I watched, they began arguing about something and I sighed. They can't go two minutes without arguing about something, can they?

They stopped arguing for a few seconds and nodded, talking quietly. Mike stood up and began running toward another boulder, even closer to their base. I saw Grif holding a rifle, following Mike's movements. Then Mike stopped on the side of the boulder and I facepalmed. They can still see you, god damn it.

"Caboose!" Tucker yelled. "Get behind the rock! They can still see you."

"They can't see me!" Mike retorted. "I can't see them!" "That's because you're facing the ROCK!" Mike looked back for a second before moving behind the boulder.

I saw Church's ghost form or whatever it's called running up the ramp of the Red base, and he went into the Red Sargent (that's what she said). He began talking to the other two Reds. After a few seconds of that, he left to go down the ramp. When he was out of view, I assumed he was heading toward the prison cell.

I waited quietly behind the rock until something happened.

I snuck around the rocks when I saw that Grif and Lopez were distracted by something on the roof, running over to meet up with Tucker and Mike. Mike was aiming the rifle at something. "What are you doing?" Tucker asked him quietly. I looked over to see what he was looking at and my eyes widened. "One of the Reds had Tex. I am going to shoot him and kill him and free Tex." I climbed up the rock to get to where Mike was, having to climb over Tucker in the process. I ignored whatever joke Tucker made at that and put my hand on the top of the rifle, gently pulling it down. "Mike, no, don't shoot."

"Why not?" Mike looked at me. "Yeah, why not?" Tucker asked, climbing up to sit on my right.

"Because that Red is being possessed by Church! If you shoot him, you'll shoot Church! Then he won't be able to get Tex out!"

Tucker and Mike both looked at me, but after Tucker looked over at Tex and Red team Sargent, he nodded.

"Dude, she's right. Put down the rifle, man."

Mike put down the gun and sighed. "Aw. Okay."

I faintly remembered that in the show, Mike shot Church and killed them both, him and the Sargent. I wonder what will happen differently now.

Church went up the ramp to the Red base, most likely to cause a distraction for Tex to run. While he was speaking to the two Reds on the roof of the base, Tucker, Mike, and I snuck back, beginning our way back to the teleporter to our base. Tex ran to catch up with us.

We all ran through the teleporter and landed on the roof of Blue base with a thud, some of us groaning from impact, others groaning because they knew they'd be covered in soot.

I was the first to get back up on my feet, but I fell back down again to my hands and knees. I hated going through the teleporter, it made me feel nauseous. Tucker came over and helped me up. "Thanks," I muttered after standing up. I wobbled a bit, closing my eyes and shaking my head to get rid of the nausea. Tucker pat me on the back (probably a bit harder than he meant to, though) and walked over to help up Tex, who I saw shoved him away. Jerk. Church was on the roof a second later, back in his transparent form. He looked around at us.

"You guys look like shit."


	11. Chapter 11

"So what happened to the red Sargent?" I asked Church as we walked down the blue base hall, making our way to the cafeteria. He gave me a look. "Y'know, after you possessed him..." I answered his suspicious gaze. If I saved Sarge from dying, then something must have happened, right?

"Oh, uh, I dunno. Just passed out after I left," Church shrugged his shoulders. I nodded. Alrighty then. "So what do we do now? I mean, the Red team hasn't attacked us since yesterday and we have nothing to do today..." Church just shrugged once more. "We don't really have that much to do around here. If Red team isn't attacking us or trying to take our flag, we're attacking them or trying to take their flag. That's just how it's always been here." Church sighed.

I hummed. "That's going to get boring very fast..." I mumbled. Church laughed. "Yeah."

"Where are we going?" I asked as we rounded a corner. "To the cafeteria." I nodded. Thinking back to it, I realized I hadn't eaten anything since I got here (what.. two, three days ago?). I wondered how I hadn't gone hungry before now. But that isn't what caught my attention. What caught my attention is the fact that they'd be eating food, which meant... they won't be wearing their helmets!

We rounded one last corner and came to an open doorway (the bases are a lot bigger in person. They're like those magic tents, looks really small from the outside but is actually really huge on the inside). When I entered, I could see everybody in Blue team standing or sitting somewhere, including Tex. Tex was the only one wearing all of her armor and her helmet, everyone else was wearing their everyday clothing and had their helmets resting beside them. I instantly knew that the golden blond was Mike.

Mike was sitting on a chair at a rectangular counter, Tex sitting at the end (the furthest from me) with her feet propped up on the gray, metallic table. Tucker was leaning against a clean counter, eating what looked like a ham sandwich while Mike was eating Cocoa Puffs cereal. Mike's back was facing me, so I couldn't see his face, but Tucker was facing the doorway and looked up at us when the door closed behind us.

"Hey," Church greeted while he passed Tucker, walking straight to Tex. Tucker ignored him and kept looking at me. He smirked after a second and I realized I had been staring. I huffed and began walking over to him to get something to eat from the cabinets behind him. On the way there, I continued looking at him.

Tucker had dark brown hair, disheveled from his sleep, and curling at the ends. His hair wasn't long, it reached just underneath his ears. His skin was a light brown, and his eyes were a golden-amber mix that sparkled with mischief. He was wearing a black, skin tight shirt with teal lining, reaching just above his elbows and showing off his fit form. His pants were the same, skin tight with teal linings. He wasn't wearing any shoes.

I grabbed something from the cabinet above him, two granola bars, and turned to jump up on the counter and sit next to Tucker.

"Good morning, Lavernius," I cooed his name and he groaned around the mouthful of his ham sandwich. I smiled. At least now I had some kind of leverage over him now.

When I propped up onto the counter and opened my first granola bar, I could finally see Mike's face. I took a bar of my granola bar, tasting some kind of dark chocolate with the grains, and began analyzing Mike as well.

His hair was exactly what anyone would expect from him, a bright and shiny golden blond (no offense to any blonds out there). His hair was also just as messy as Tucker's, but I had a feeling that it was probably always messy, as if it were his style. He had fair skin, free of any beauty marks. His eyes were a sparkling bright blue, and they lifted to meet my own green eyes. Mike smiled, showing off his (cute) dimples. His shirt was a grayish blue color and baggy and loose on his tall form, showing off his collar bone and the tops of his shoulders, where I could see a faded scar on the left.

"Morning, Alex!" Mike greeted me enthusiastically and I smiled at him in greeting, my mouth was full.

"Pfft, can't speak around a mouth full o' dark chocolate?" Tucker cooed and I almost choked. I swallowed quickly and looked down at him, my skin a light red from his comment. He winked once before continuing his sandwich. A second later, Church stood back up and walked out of the room, Tex following him quickly. Tex's helmet glanced at me for a second before the door blocked me from seeing her walk out with Church.

"What's that about?" Tucker asked boredly, his words slurred from the ham in his mouth.

"What's wrong," I began in a teasing voice and he glanced up at me quickly. "Can't speak with a mouth full of meat?"

This time, Tucker did choke on his food. He began coughing and I laughed while Mike got up to get him a glass of water. By the time he was done drinking the water, I was wiping tears from my eyes. He glared at me and I knew I started a war between us. Ah yes, meet the Blue team. A flock full of idiots and morons with guns and grenades they didn't know how to use. A team with a much too large base. A family.

_My_ family.


	12. Chapter 12

(( To Tim46Billion: ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)))

"Man," Mike sighed. "This stuff does not come off easy!"

Mike was referring to the soot covering his armor from the mission we held to rescue Tex the other day, him and Tucker(or Lavernius, I don't know if I should start calling him that yet) went through the teleporter and was completely covered, head to toe, in black soot. They had put off cleaning their armor yesterday because they were too tired and Church (reluctantly) let them go to bed first. Now they were cleaning it in front of Blue base while Tex stood on the roof. Tucker already cleaned his suit to the point where most of his armor was teal again, but Mike was still completely covered in it. I was helping Finish off the tough spots for Tucker, and he made sure to make plenty of innuendos about it while I worked.

"Yeah, it was a lot easier when it was just cleaning my armor," Tucker agreed. "Yeah, I think because, you know, uh, you didn't _do anything_!" Mike shot at Tucker, holding his hands up in frustration. I held back a laugh. Burn.

"I'm sorry, what? It's kinda hard to hear you over your constant team killing," Tucker replied calmly and I winced. Too far, dude.

"Ah, ah, ah! Yeah, yeah!" Mike laughed sarcastically. "Ahhhhh," His laugh died down and he replied in a serious tone. "Don't make me mad."

I sighed and chuckled quietly. These two are not on good terms, are they? "What're you laughing at?" Tucker huffed at me when he turned to look. "You two bicker like an old married couple." Tucker stiffened under his armor and I laughed while Mike just looked confused.

It didn't take too long for me to finish Tucker's armor, with Mike refusing to help Tucker in any way at all, and Tucker and I quickly set to wipe down Mike's armor as well. Though I suspected Tucker wasn't really doing anything and I was the only one working. A few minutes into cleaning his armor, Mike turned his head to look at something. Tucker and I both looked as well.

Tex and Church were arguing about something.

Tucker and I shared a look before we both dropped the rags in our hands and made our way over to them to hear their conversation. They didn't seem to notice (or to care) when we got closer.

"-so as far as I'm concerned, I'm square with you," Tex said coldly. I wonder what had happened between these two. I mean, yeah, ex-relationships have reasons to hate each other just for that, but really, why was Tex always so cold to him?

"I saved you from a life of imprisonment," Church shot back. "How the hell are you square with me?"

Mike joined us halfway through Church's answer and joined us while we listened to their conversation.

"Because I didn't kill you at sidewinder," Tex put her hands on her hips. We all looked at Church and expected his answer.

"You know, I don't really see how _not_ killing somebody is the same thing as doing them a favor." I raised my brows. Was he complaining about not being killed by his ex-girlfriend? We all looked back at Tex.

"Well, if you don't appreciate it, I could just kill you right now." I furrowed my brows this time. She can't kill him, he's already dead.

"No you can't! I'm already dead, bitch! I guess the joke's on you-" Church didn't even get to finish his sentence as Mike spoke up, yelling to make sure everyone was listening.

"Stop it! Stop fighting!" He said in a teary voice and I rolled my eyes slightly. "Can't you see that you are tearing us apart? What about us!" I stopped rolling my eyes when he said that. He actually has a point, we _did_ help save her from the Reds.. "What about you?" Tex asked, confused and pissed that he interrupted.

"We helped you too. And what do we get? Nothing!" Mike sounded close to tears and I wondered how good of an actor he might've made.

"Well yeah, but-" Tex started, but Church intervened. "Yeah but nothing. He's got a point."

"I did help them get their flag back!" Now it was Tucker's turn to interrupt. "Yeah, but you were paid to do that! We rescued you as a favor. We could have just let you rot in the Red army's prison!" I sighed.

"Wouldn't have made any difference to us," I said, shrugging and crossing my arms over my chest. Tex glared at me and I glared right on back.

Tex was quiet for a second while she let all of this sink in (and glared at me the whole time she was thinking) before finally sighing and holstering her pistol.

"Fine! I'll stay here as long as it takes to help you guys win this thing. As soon as I have, I am out of here." The rest of us sighed when we realized she was going to stay and help. "What do you need me to do?" She asked pensively.

It was silent.

"I have no idea," Tucker began after a moment. "If you knew how to fix a tank, I would have you do that.."

Tex shrugged. "Okay."

Mike began sputtering. "Wait! You- you're going to- you know how to fix Sheila?!" Mike shouted in shock and I leaned away from him slightly. His yelling was really loud. Mike continued after Tex nodded. "I love you." I rolled my eyes and sighed, uncrossing my arms and turned around to go back inside. I am so not dealing with Mike's weird tank-love thing.

Tex shuddered visibly and Church shook his head. Tucker turned to see me walking away and he ran to catch up with me.

"Hey, where you goin'?" He asked, walking backward and looking at me while we made our way to base.

"Back inside, I don't wanna deal with Mike's love triangle thing," I sighed. Tucker chuckled. "Yeah, none of us do." We continued walking in silence until we reached base and Tucker hit the wall with his back, he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going (he was also walking backwards). I stopped and backtracked a few steps to see him rubbing his head with his armor-covered hands. I began laughing. It was a few giggles, but with the look that Tucker gave me while he rest his hand on his head, I began full-out laughing. He glared at me for a second before he smiled and joined in on the laughing.

In a few seconds we were both hunched over and I had my hand on his shoulder for support. We were both breathless and were wiping tears from our eyes. I don't know why I found it so funny, but we just kept on laughing until our stomachs hurt.

We calmed our laughing down and I faintly asked myself how we had ended up on the ground but I didn't really care. We were both sitting up and I leaned against Tucker while he leaned against base. Every now and then, we both let out a few giggles.

"Tucker!" Church yelled from across base and Tucker jumped. "Yeah?" He shouted in response, standing up to see where Church was. I stood up with him. "Come on, man, we're gonna go take Tex to the tank. Get your helmet, we leave in a few minutes." Tucker groaned and looked at me. "Looks like I gotta go. Have fun being alone at base," Tucker smirked and began walking away.

"Get me some cats, that way I can be an alone crazy old cat lady," I laughed. Tucker looked at me and shook his head, but I could see his smile.

"Yeah, alright!"


	13. AN

So, okay, I have this story posted on another website. Archive Of Our Own. Just look up the story title (An Unexpected Turn) and you'll find it there. I also have some drabbles up there o3o but anyway, back to the author's note.

And on there I talked about this in an A/N, so you can read it there if you want. If not, I'm gonna say it here.

Alright so it occurred to me that I was the only one who knew about the plans for this story, and while that may be understandable(considering I am the author of the story) I still feel the need to explain this to you, my readers.

Netflix is where I discovered Red Vs Blue, I only found out it was on YouTube like a week ago. I watch all of my episodes on Netflix. Another thing I only discovered recently was that, on YouTube, each episode is only about 5 minutes long, getting up to only 15-20 minutes long at max. This is not the case on Netflix.

On Netflix, each episode is roughly two hours long, sometimes more. It's a lot of the YouTube episodes put together to make one big episode on Netflix. I was watching marathons of Red Vs Blue without knowing it lol.

Anyway, the point is, my story (An Unexpected Turn) is a part of a series. Each individual story is one episode from Netflix. So this may have only about 20-25 chapters in it, considering episode one is the shortest episode in the whole series on Netflix(1 hour, 45 minutes long).

Conclusion: Each episode from Netflix will be a whole story on here.

I don't know how many of my readers have Netflix, but you can look it up if you think I am lying (Yes, I have run into people who thought that I was lying about this).

I think that concludes this author's note. The next chapter is currently being written, I haven't decided whether I am posting it today or tomorrow once it is done.

Peace, -Sil


	14. Chapter 14

((Sorry for the long delay! A few things came up. They're dealt with now, though, so enjoy this chapter with some Tucker fluff. I love that guy))

I sat atop the Blue base roof, sitting on the edge with my feet hanging over it and swinging slightly. They hadn't really gone that far, the tank was still where we left it last, a mile and a half out into the canyon. I could still see them, so I decided to sit on the roof and watch whatever was going on. Though it was aggravating that I couldn't hear them.

The others, Mike, Tucker, and Tex, were standing still and looking at Church, so I assumed he was talking. A few seconds later, Tucker seemed to be saying something and Tex walked away from them, toward the tank. She knelt down and began messing around with it and I couldn't help but think about the cartoons, where they'd just hit it with a hammer and it'd be fixed. I smiled at the thought.

Mike seemed to be saying something next, taking a step toward Church and Tucker and raising his hands in what seemed to be anger, or he was just stating something that upset him.

And then all of a sudden Tex picked up the tank. Everyone turned over to stare at her in shock. She hefted the tank to flip it over and it landed with a loud thud onto the ground, no doubt leaving large dents in the dirt.

For a few seconds, they just looked at her in shock while she continued to mess around with the tank. Judging by the way Tucker turned to look at Church, one of them was saying something. It went on for about seven seconds before Mike began saying something too, it was loud enough so that I could almost hear what he was saying. I heard his voice, just couldn't make out the words. Another few seconds of conversation and Church turned around and began running toward the hills, towards Red base. Tucker said something and then he turned around as well and began walking towards Tex. They engaged in conversation, or at least Tucker said something but Tex kept ignoring him. They both looked at Mike for a second and I squinted in suspicion. What're they up to? Before I could think further on the topic, however, Church yelled from the top of the boulders, where he had died.

"Tucker!" Tucker jumped in shock and I snorted. Why did he keep jumping when Church called him? I woulda thought years of being with him would have made him used to that by now. Tucker turned around to look at Church.

"Hey, Tucker!" Church called again. "What?" Tucker yelled back.

"What the hell is my body still doing up here?!" Church yelled from the boulder. Oh right, I meant to tell them to bury him. Oops.

"That's part of being dead, Church. Your body doesn't really move around much anymore," Tucker shrugged nonchalantly at a fuming Church. "Maybe you haven't fully grasped the concept yet."

"All right, well, let me rephrase that, then..." Church began quieter, but still mad. " Why in the hell haven't you buried my body yet?!" "Buried?" Tucker asked, turning to look at Church and throwing his hands into the air. "With what? All we have are pistols and rifles! What'dya want me to do, shoot you a grave?"

I sighed. This was going nowhere. Tucker turned to look at Tex for a second, then she turned around and began fixing the tank. Tucker said something else, but it wasn't loud enough for me to hear him.

"Rest in peace, good buddy!" Tucker yelled. I heard that one. Texas and Tucker began fiddling with the tank some more and Church was just staring at his body. Mike was standing behind Tucker, just looking at the sky. This, was also going nowhere. Screw this. I was not going to stay on top of a large rock for hours while they screwed around.

I looked down. The base was about 10 feet into the air, most of the actual base was slightly underground and hidden well. Well, I wasn't going to jump down there from here. That would hurt like hell. I huffed and scoot backwards, lifting my feet off the edge to rest on the concrete before lifting myself up. As long as I'm here, I should know the base that I'm going to be spending my time in, shouldn't I? Smiling, I made my way down the ramp slowly. The ramp was steep, so it was easy for my flat shoes to slip on it. I really needed to ask for some armor or something.

I walked around the ramp once I was at the bottom, tracing my hand along the blue light on the wall as I walked. These lights were actually very pretty in the dark. The base was cool and dark, the lights were automatic and they had turned on when everyone woke up, turning off when everybody left. I entered Mike's room out of familiarity, and the light flickered before reading my signal and turning on. I smiled. The room was the most familiar to me, and Mike was perfectly okay with sharing his bed with me. Though I never saw him getting in, so I wonder whether he actually slept in the bed with me or went to sleep on the dark blue couch in the corner of his room. I'm actually very curious on why he has a couch in his room, it took up most of the space and he almost never used it since he was outside all the time. The walls were the same color as the outside of the base's walls, or, rather, they were before Mike began using them as a big scratch pad. I now understood why Church gave him crayons.

The floor was a darker gray than the walls, and it was cool in the nighttime, growing warm during the morning. I used my feet to slip off my shoes, kicking them next to the door to get out of the way. I walked further into the room and shivered as the cold made its way to my feet, chilling me to the bone. There were a few pieces of clothes lying around, Mike's regular clothing. I guess he's in too much of a rush to clean it all up. That or he was just too lazy to clean. I walked toward the right of the room, to the closet just in front of Mike's bed. The doors were slightly opened, Mike never made sure to close them all the way before he left. Grasping the metal doorknobs, I slowly opened the door.

Mike's clothes were all hung up messily on hangers, a few of his socks or underwear (ew) on the floor of the closet. There were a few jackets on top of the closet, and I sighed, remembering my own clothes. They had showers, but I was either too busy or didn't feel comfortable showering around three other guys. Even if I did shower, I didn't have any of my clothes with me to change in to. All I had with me was what I was wearing when I got here, which is my pajamas. A light blue button up blouse and a maroon-ish colored pair of shorts. They were a darker shade of pink. I also had my dark red socks. The red on my socks and shorts might have been why Caboose thought I might've been a Red.

"Hm," I hummed quietly to myself. I really needed to get a shower and some new clothes. I scoffed to myself. I am seriously going to start a list of things I need here. Shower. Clothes. Armor. Something sweet to eat would be nice, too. All they had in the kitchen area were healthy foods and vitamins and all that. They were fine, I wasn't a big fan of junk food, but I still liked something sweet every now and then.

I looked through Mike's closet, feeling some of the sweaters. They were soft. And warm. Maybe Mike would let me wear some of his clothes until we could find out how to wash mine or get me more?

Before I could even finish the thought, a huge explosion went off. It was large enough that I literally jumped into the air, the after shock ringing in my ears. Holy. Shit.

I closed Mike's closet quickly, running out of the room to see what was going on. I ran back down the hallway, recognizing the lights and patterns to make sure I didn't get lost on the way out. Once I reached the ramp, I ran behind it and ducked underneath it, making my way out of the front entrance. I walked around to the back. Tex was a few yards away with the tank, and Tucker and Mike were standing on top of a boulder together.

"Firing main canon," a robotic voice rang out and I winced. Sheila.

She fired again at the Red base and I covered my ears quickly. Now that I was much closer and didn't have the thick cement walls of the Blue base to block it out, the sound was almost concussive. I took a few steps closer. I wanted to get over the hill to see what was going on, but I definitely did not want to get too much closer to the tank, which, I saw, housed Tex in the driver's canopy. Oh shit, I remember this part.

"Tex! Texas!" I shouted over the sound of the explosion. I really, really did not like Tex, but her being the only other girl on the team made it hard for me to want her dead. Even if they referred to her as a half girl half shark. The firing stopped for a second, and Tex turned around to look at me. "What?" She called from the driver's canopy.

"You need to stop! Get out of the tank!" I shouted. I was not getting any closer to the tank, even if she did stop firing. She gave me a look.

"Fuck off, Derrix." She turned back around and I gasped. What the hell? She began firing again and I covered my ears again, the vibrations causing a headache. I couldn't stand being around the tank for much longer or else I might get seriously hurt.

I stood still as she continued firing, tears pricking at my eyes. The sound, the pain, the sudden kidnapping me from my home, it all started to finally break me down. I closed my eyes tightly, hyperventilating. I was having a panic attack. Funny time to show up, don't you think? My body went rigid and I cried out when another explosion rang out. A second later, I felt hands on my shoulders. They were warm, and they made me open my eyes. My eyesight was blurry. I was crying. I could make out the armor color, though.

Tucker stood in front of me, both hands on my shoulders. I could tell he was saying something, but his voice was just a hoarse whisper compared to the explosions right beside me. He lifted his hand to his helmet and I figured he must have been radioing somebody. He clicked the radio off a second later, probably not waiting for a reply to whatever he had said, and he swept his arm under my knees and picked me up bridal style. He moved me in his arms so that I was easier to carry and he turned around and began making his way toward Blue base. The explosions were still too loud for me to hear anything else, but the warmth surrounding me ebbed away at the panic attack. I let out a sob when another shot rang out, vibrating through his armor and making me shake. I closed my eyes again, sobbing openly now.

Within seconds, I felt the cool air of the base, and the explosions were quieter now, though still loud enough to shake a few things inside the base. I kept my eyes closed and continued crying, Tucker carried me into the base. I felt something soft under me the next second. I opened my eyes. Tucker had set me down on his bed. My feet were curled up to my chest and I was still holding my hands against my ears, sobbing quietly now. Tucker sat with me and pet my hair down, wrapping his arm around me to comfort me, his chin resting against my hair. When had he taken his helmet off..?

I faintly felt Tucker kiss the top of my head before I was asleep.


	15. Chapter 15

It was hard to sleep with all of the explosions going on, but I managed to sleep for a whole three minutes. Wow.

When I got up, Tucker was back outside again and, judging by the shouting in Spanish, I assumed Donut had thrown the grenade at Texas and had killed her. Or perhaps she was dying right now. I threw the covers off of me and jumped out of.. Tucker's bed..? It took a second to remember why I was here.

Oh yeah. I sorta, had a mental breakdown. And a panic attack.

Ugh.

They were so going to laugh at me. Oh hey, it's that one girl who can't even stand an explosion. Why would she be in a war? Even if it isn't an actual war, they think it is.

Putting that thought aside, though, I ran through the base to the outside doorway. Expecting to run through the automatic doors, she... ran right into the closed door.

"Ah shit-" she cursed when she fell, holding her nose. What the fuck? I cough and bring one of my hands away from my nose, looking at it. Shit, I have a bloody nose now. I stand up and tilt my head back slightly. Walking toward the door again, with my hands in front of me this time, I realized that the door just wouldn't open for me. My eye twitched.

He locked me in.

That bastard.

I turned around and stomped through the base, looking for something to clog my nose. For lack of anywhere else to go, I went back to Tucker's room. Walking around a bit, I realized there was a conjoined bathroom connected to his room. I went inside and took a few squares of toilet paper, grumbling while I sat on his bed.

"Fucking asshole. How could he lock me in here," I huffed and held the now folded toilet paper to my nose, leaning back until I fell against his bed. I sat there for a moment, just thinking of how I could get out of here. I was interrupted, however, when I heard something outside the door. I went still, holding my breath to hear it again. Nothing. I groaned and laid my head back down. Now I'm going crazy. Nice.

Suddenly Tucker's bedroom door swished open.

"Holy shi-" I jumped up in surprise. Tucker held his hands up.

"Woah, calm down Chica." I sent him a glare and he looked at me confused. "What? What'd I do?"

"You locked the door, jerk," I laid back down. My nose had stopped bleeding, so I threw the toilet paper across the room, missing the trash can by an inch. Tucker made a sound of disgust.

"Ew. You're so cleaning that up," he walked over to his bed, putting his helmet down on a table next to it and plopping down on the bed with me. I waved him off, "yeah, yeah."

"And," he began explaining. "I locked the door because you were freaking out." I looked at him, and he explained further. "Caboose is the one that pointed out you were crying. I went over to ask what was wrong and you wouldn't answer me." I groaned and put my hands over my face. Yeah, they were so going to laugh at this later. "I told Church I was gonna take you to safety, and so I took you in here-" I looked at him. "-because I didn't have permission to go in Church's and Caboose's room," he tried to give reason for bringing me in his room. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine."

He sighed in relief when I bought his excuse. Though he looked up at me confused for a second. "Hey, did you know that Caboose wasn't Caboose's actual name?" I looked at him in confusion as well, sitting up on my elbows to come face to face with him.

"Yeah, he said his actual name is 'O'Malley' or something," he threw up his hand at 'O'Malley'. I willed myself to look surprised.

"Really?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Dunno why he wouldn't say so before."

It went silent. I could tell Tucker was looking at me, but I kept looking off at the side.

"I'm still pissed you locked me in here," I huffed. He looked surprised for a second, then he cracked a smile.

"Sorry about that. Would you forgive me if I told you I got you some armor?" Now it was my turn to look surprised. I looked over at him in shock.

"_Yes._ Yes I would." He smiled and stood, stretching by putting his arms above his head. He sighed and turned to walk away. "C'mon." I stood up quickly and followed him. We walked through a few corridors and I asked him about the armor.

"What color is it?"

"Blue. Duh." I furrowed my brows.

"It isn't Tex's armor, is it?"

"No. Tex's armor is black. Yours is blue."

"Where'd you get it? How'd you get it?"

"Vic. Told him we got a new recruit and that you needed new armor, he sent it in without question."

I hummed. Before I could ask another question, we rounded a corner and came to a door I had never seen before. Or, it looked the same as all of the other doors, gray and dull, but I had never come down this hallway, so I never went into this door. When Tucker opened the door, I immediately knew it was an armory.

It was a bit bigger than their rooms, but it was the same colors as theirs. The walls were a dark gray and the floors were a shade darker. As was the ceiling. The only difference in color were the bright blue lights above the weapon boxes containing countless guns and ammo. The boxes themselves were also outlined in bright blue lights. These blues really wanted to make sure everyone knew it was blue property, huh? The one thing that stuck out in the dark and dull room was the arctic blue armor in the middle of the room. It was standing under a blue light by the wall, as if it were the most important thing in the room. And to me, it was.

I walked over to the armor and awed over it. I loved the shade of blue.

Tucker smiled.

"I know, I know, I'm amazing. But before you can put the armor on," he walked over and picked up some folded clothes from beside it. He leaned against the table and handed it to me. "You gotta put this on under it."

It was the black skin tight clothing he was wearing earlier. Looking at him now, I could see he was still wearing it. This must've been the black clothing everybody wore under their armor. I hummed.

" 'Course, I could always help you put it on-" I shot him down quickly. "No." He laughed and I huffed.

I went back to the bathroom from earlier to change into it. I looked into the mirror, poking at the clothes. I never liked skin tight clothing. I wasn't ashamed of my body, I was fit, I just never felt comfortable in it. I sighed and walked out of the room, walking to Tucker. He, of course, eyed me and I snapped to make him look back up.

"Eyes are up here, doofus."

"Well maybe I wasn't tryn'a look into your eyes," he smirked. I smacked him lightly on the shoulder and he just laughed. I looked at my new armor.

"... how do I put this on?" I had seen them put their armor on countless times, but I never bothered actually remembering the moves, thinking I would never get some armor to use them on. Seems I was wrong.

Tucker just laughed again.

"Sheesh you really weren't trained for anything, huh?" He said it jokingly, but I couldn't help but smile nervously while he showed me what parts of armor go where, and how to put them on. I, obviously, refused to let him put on the cod piece. It took about five minutes to get it on with only his instructions and several hand swats away.

I had all of my armor on, minus the helmet, in about fifteen minutes. It was pretty quick for me, but Tucker said I would have to work on that. Tucker was holding my blue helmet.

"Y'know," he looked at me. The armor's feet had made me slightly taller, but Tucker was still taller than me. "You actually look pretty cool in armor." I scoffed.

"Are you saying there are times when I don't look pretty cool?" We both laugh and he turned the helmet in his hands. He lifted the helmet above my head and smiled at me. I smiled back. He lowered the helmet onto my head, and everything was tinted a slight orange-ish color from the visor. Yeah, I'd have to get used to that, too. A HUD appeared and showed me the armor weak points and strong points, I mesmerized them for future references. It also showed me the condition of my armor, and I noted that some parts of my armor were damaged. I'd have to ask Tucker about that. Before I could open my mouth to speak, a _ding_ rang out. I jumped slightly. Tucker noticed, apparently.

"I take it you heard a dinging noise?" When I nodded, he shrugged. "Yeah that means you got a message from somebody. It should be on the bottom of your visor." He didn't seem to be confused about how I got a message. Perhaps everybody got a message when they put their armor on for the first time..?

I looked to the bottom right of the helmet and, low and behold, there was a message written in silver, contrasting greatly against the orange tint. My eyes widened.

"They should say who it's from, too," Tucker informed me.

"Yeah I kind of... figured that..." I read the message again.

_::This is your armor? Great. Brain buddies with a lunatic. -Texas::_


End file.
